Climate august 2010

-- text posts are at the blistered orb --

CLIMATE EVENTS
England experiences exceptionally dry summer 8.31.
Pacific hot spells shifting as predicted 8.29.
Caribbean hurricane Earl is approaching 8.28.
Louisiana hurricane Katrina five year memorial service 8.28.
... The Big Uneasy--Harry Shearer's new film
Bolivia antarctic cold snap empties Bolivian rivers of fish 8.27.
Russia fires cost 300 billion $ in forest loss 8.27.Pakistan flood catastrophe aftermath 8.27.
China mudslides obliterate city district (photo) 8.20.World rising temps reduce plant ability to absorb carbon 8.20.
Arctic sea ice melting 2010: day 229 8.19.
Southeast Asia unprecedented coral bleaching underway 7.29.
Japan summer heat wave blamed for 66 deaths 7.27.
Ireland summer droughts to become the norm 7.1.Ireland hottest summer in 130 years 6.25.
Florida MRSA can be caught at the beach 2.13.

GAIA TRENDS

we've gone into the ecological red on August 21 8.23.
diseases you can catch in the warming oceans 8.22.
food crisis: the foundation is crumbling 8.19.
agricultural economist warns of new food crisis 8.19.
giant ocean garbage patches: currently not growing 8.20.
global warming is driving lizards to extinction 5.13.
GULF OIL

... engineers to remove temporary cap over well 8.27.
... after outcry, oil data inches into the open 8.20.
... BP struggles to swap out blowout preventer 8.19.
...giant plume of droplets 'missed' by official account 8.19.
... Gulf oil plume is not breaking down fast 8.19.
... we have yet to come face to face with biggest cost of spill 8.17.
... how badly have we screwed up the Gulf ecosystem? 8.5.
CLIMATE SCIENCE

(bad news--another positive feedback loop found:
the hotter it gets, the less CO2 gets fixed by plants)
M Zhao reduction in terrestrial net primary production 2000-2009
Science 329 (2010): 940-943

(warmer ocean temps plus shifting currents equal dead zones)
V Gewin oceanography: dead in the water
Nature 466 (2010): 812-814

(sea water pH to drop close to the pH of distilled water by 2100)
D Bernie influence of mitigation policy on ocean acidification
Geophysical Research Letters 37 (2010) L15704
...see also geoscience: ocean acid control Nature 466 (2010) 905

(gulf oil will spread into northwest atlantic within six months)
M Maltrud long-term fate of oil from Deepwater Horizon incident
Environmental Research Letters 5 (2010) 035301

(New Orleans's 'recovery' is a harbinger of how climate change
will drive a thicker wedge between the haves and the have-nots)
J Mutter disasters widen the rich-poor gap
Nature 466 (2010): 1042

(for the first time we can quantify future climate refugees)
D Biello climate change may mean more Mexican immigration
Scientific American July (2010)
...see also
S Feng climate change, crop yields, and Mexico-US migration
Proceedings of the Nat'l Academy of Sciences 107 (2010) 14257-62

(annual data sets with summaries, just published)
NOAA state of the climate in 2009
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 91 (2010)
... the data portal is here... the upshot (ch 2, p. 29):
... ... 2009 transition from La Nina to El Nino dominated anomalies
... ... 2009 ranked in the top 10 warmest years globally
... ... 2009 about 0.1 C warmer than 2008
... ... 2009 is 19th consecutive year that glaciers have lost mass

(reefs are reeling from extensive bleaching in Indian Ocean/SE Asia)
D Normile hard summer for corals kindles fears for survival of reefs
Science 329 (2010): 1001

(late Eocene research suggests Antarctic ice shield may not hold)
S Peters large-scale glaciation and deglaciation of Antarctica
Geology 38 (2010): 723-726

climate skeptic B Lomborg now warns of climate change 8.31.
toxic pollutants linked to tar sands mining 8.30.
RealClimate science update 8.20.

CLIMATE POLICY

UN IPCC chair Pachauri urged to step down 8.31.
UN review finds flaws in Climate Panel structure 8.30.
US climate bill dies in Senate 8.30.Mongolian cabinet meets in desert, to call attention to climate 8.29.
Germany wants to extend nuclear power 10-15 years 8.29.
US wants China and India to drill for "clean" shale gas 8.27.
China builds base to drill for deep-sea methane clathrates 8.27.
Australia's politicians have failed its people on climate change 8.25.
CLIMATE MITIGATION

Greenpeace 'shuts down' Arctic oil rig 8.31.
US nuclear industry takes new path for new plants 8.31.
New York City biking boom (and backlash) 8.30.
UN cap-and-trade is beginning to raise concerns 8.29.
US levees, dams, rails are deteriorating 8.28.
deep-freezing coral cells, for re-breeding after climate change 8.19.

CLIMATE PHILOSOPHY

New Scientist interviews S Zizek on Living in End Times 8.31.
R Irwin, ed. Climate and Philosophy (London: Continuum, 2010)

CLIMATE DENIERS / AMERICAN DISENLIGHTENMENT

US fed housing finance agency opposes home-greening program 8.27.
Texas opposes federal global warming 'power grab' 8.25.
US: building a nation of know-nothings 8.25.

CLIMATE ESSAYS
D Biello 'gray literature': how much IPCC reform is needed? 8.30.
N Oreskes/E Conway climate deniers--merchants of doubt 8.25.
T Homer-Dixon disaster at the top of the world 8.22.
R Edroso right-wingers and Ayn Rand 8.20.
K. Harrington energy machismo vs. solar panels 8.20.
E Kain why to invest in high-speed rail in the US 8.20.
B Moench criminal neglect of future generations 8.19.
T Goeghegan why you'd be healthier and wealthier in Germany 8.17.
B McKibben hot as hell & not going to take it anymore 8.5.
A Smith / A Flores disaster politics 7.15.

CLIMATE TEXT REVIEWS

Julian Cribb The Coming Famine
Mori Art Museum Rethinking the Japanese Perception of Nature

BEST GLOBAL WARMING QUOTE

Global average surface temperatures during the last three decades have been progressively warmer than all earlier decades, making 2000-2009 (the 2000s) the warmest decade in the instrumental record.
NOAA state of the climate 2009 ch 2 p 29

BEST CIVIL EVOLUTION NEWS

report says public transportation makes you skinny 8.20.


.

Climate july 2010

--text posts are at the blistered orb--

CLIMATE EVENTS

Arctic lowest sea ice extent ever, for month of June 7.6.
Greenland huge ice island calves off glacier 8.11.
Global wheat supply forecast cut 8.12.
Russia ban on grain exports begins 8.19.
Russia probably thousands killed in Moscow by heat 8.17.Russia lashed by storm after heatwave 8.16.
Russia reduces grain harvest forecast 8.9.
Russia hottest summer on record 7.29.
China suffers more heat and rainstorms (August) 8.14.
China floods affect twenty-nine provinces (July) 8.5.
China floods affect nine provinces (June) 6.20.Pakistan the race to save the country's agriculture 8.17.
Pakistan heat spikes to new record at 128 F / 53 C 8.12.
Pakistan floods worst disaster in national history 8.10.
India fatal cloudburst kills 150 in driest place on Earth 8.17.
Niger extreme drought worsens 8.12.Ghana 10 mio affected by drought and famine 7.5.
Ghana head meteo: false alarm; no drought this year 4.14.
Ghana warned to face drought this year 4.14.
Germany floods, again 8.16.
Indonesia reefs die at record rates due to warming seas 8.18.Indonesia tropical mountain glaciers gone by end of the decade 8.16.
Southeast Asia world's "coral triangle" now bleaching out 7.27.
GULF OIL

...BP cover-up of true size of spill continues 8.17.
...70-79 percent of oil spilled is still in water 8.17. (see also here)
...oil lurking beneath surface, settling in Panhandle Canyon 8.17....Gulf sea food not tested for dispersant 8.16.
...freedom of spill research threatened 7.28.
GAIA TRENDS

How the heatwave in Russia is connected to floods in Pakistan 8.12.
WMO warns: unprecedented series of climate events 8.11.
WMO ties Pakistan floods to climate change 8.18.UN warns: mass extinction now worst since 62 mio yrs ago 8.16.

CLIMATE SCIENCE

(three options how to mitigate risks of runaway events)
C Kousky responding to the threat of climate mega-catastrophes
Harvard, Kennedy School of Government 19 Oct 2010

(mangrove forests disappear ever faster)C Giri status and distribution of mangrove forests of the world
Global Ecology & Biogeography 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00584.x

(warming-related cold snaps thwart plant adaptation)
A Jalili climate change, cold waves, and brakes on plant migration
Global Ecology & Biogeography 10.1111/j.1466-8238.2010.00553.x

(mammoths went extinct because of global warming)
J Allen last glacial vegetation in northern Eurasia
Quaternary Science Reviews 10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.05.031

(China's soot worsens global warming)
M Ramana warming influenced by the ratio of black carbon
Nature Geoscience 3 (2010): 542-543

(positive feedbacks via nitrogen et al worsen climate change)
A Arneth terrestrial biogeochemical feedbacks in the climate system
Nature Geoscience 3 (2010): 525-543

(gulf oil isn't gone; it's hovering in the deep)
R Kerr a lot of oil on the loose, not so much to be found
Science 329 (2010): 734-735

(Science special issue on scaling up alternative energy)
Editorial getting better to get bigger (links to papers)
Science 329 (2010): 779

(combination punch could fell rainforests -- cf. New Scientist)
G Asner combined effects of climate and land-use change on the future of humid tropical forests
Conservation Letters doi 10.1111/j.1755-263x.2010.00133x

CLIMATE POLICY

US biggest expansion of coal (!) power in 2 decades 8.17.US Wisconsin Republican to stop high speed rail 8.18.
US Republicans derail cap-and-trade bill 8.5.

CLIMATE MITIGATION

Toyota hybrids lead German enviro ranking 8.18.
German solar city (Freiburg) creates 4 x energy it uses 8.16.
China surges ahead with renewable energy 8.5.
Kyoto targets are impossible to verify 8.13.

CLIMATE DENIERS / AMERICAN DISENLIGHTENMENT

... a list of corrupt Republican assholes courtesy of The Grist,
supplemented by Politico

California: Carly Fiorina (R)
Colorado: Ken Buck (R)
Connecticut: Linda MacMahon (R)
Florida 1: Marco Rubio (R)
Florida 2: Rick Scott (R)
Kentucky: Rand Paul (R)
Massachussetts: Charlie Baker (R)
Nevada: Sharron Angle (R)
New Mexico 1: Steve Pearce (R)
New Mexico 2: Susana Martinez (R)
Oklahoma: Jim Inhofe (R)
Pennsylvania: Pat Toomey (R)
Washington: Dino Rossi (R)
Wisconsin: Ron Johnson (R)

BEST GLOBAL WARMING QUOTE

Coal and oil--the real "Axis of Evil" 'in the United States today--present a major challenge in the context of climate change.

D Kennedy (editor emeritus) "Beyond Petroleum?"
Science 329 (2010): 727


.