climate december 2010

--text posts are at the blistered orb--

EVENTS

Panama: floods cause closing of Panama canal 12.24.
Australia: white Christmas, blast of winter, in mid-summer 12.21.
Colorado: worst avalanche danger in state history 12.22.
California: atmospheric river of rain 12.22.
California: devastation, floods, and mudflows 12.23.
California: rain shatters records, more on the way 12.20.
California: mountains face crushing snowfall 12.19.
US Northeast: brutal cold, record snow 12.15.
Florida: cold damages tropical fish industry 12.14.
US Midwest: giant snowstorm 12.13.Britain: century blizzard 12.16.
Britain: coldest December since records began 12.18.
Britain/France: snow, ice cripple Eurostar 12.18.
Europe: winter paralyzes European travel 12.19.
Venezuela: flood-stricken country gets help from Mexico 12.18.Colombia: record-breaking rainfall paralyzes country 12.16.

TRENDS

freak diversion of jet stream 12.22.
freak blocking pattern over Greenland 12.20.
2010's world gone wild 12.19.more cold and snowy winters to come 11.6.2010 hottest climate year on record, NASA says 12.10.
RealClimate: cold winter in world of warming 12.14.
PIK Potsdam: global warming cools down temps in winter 11.16.
AMERICAN DISENLIGHTENMENT

US: Der Spiegel: "Obama was biggest loser of 2010" 12.23.
US: hunger and homelessness stalk US cities 12.20.
US: (scr)AmTrack -- tips on how to survive failing trains
US: 40 percent of Americans still believe in creationism 12.20.
US: gov smear campaign against Michael Moore 12.23.
US: Obama decides to keep KZ Guantanamo open 12.22.
US: P. Krugman: "when zombies win" 12.19.
US: news black-out on vets chained to White House fence 12.18.
US: the religous fight against environmentalism 12.17.
US: rare earth shortages 12.15.
US: Florida stops high speed rail plan 12.15.
US: Fox bureau chief tells reporters be skeptical of climate 12.15.
US: is Karl Rove behind Julian Assange's prosecution? 12.14.US: Joe Bageant: "are you Americans so dumb?" 12.7.
US: top 25 censored news stories 9.15.
US Department of Defense worst polluter on the planet 9.15.
US: prisoners still brutalized at KZ Guantanamo Bay 9.15.

GLOBAL ENLIGHTENMENT

Agence France-Presse: cold driven by global warming 12.22.
China wins on wind power, writes its own rules now 12.15.
B McKibben: everything is negotiable, except with Nature 12.16.Emmanuel Guerin on COP-16 Cancun 12.14.
The Economist: Cancun, a surprising success 12.11.

A LOOK BACK AT 2010

... a US-centric list from Climate Central's top 10 climate events

1. Mid-Atlantic cities break all-time snowfall records
2. flooding in Nashville, Tenn.
3. record-breaking heat waves, droughts in Africa, Middle East
4. Russian heat wave
5. US summer heat waves
6. Pakistan monsoon and flooding
7. third lowest Arctic sea ice extent
8. Lake Mead record low
9. Amazon drought
10. final annual temperature ranking

I would add 11. Mongolia record winter destroys lifestock

... the monthly ticker in Climate Central's top 5 climate events
Jan: fourth warmest January on record
Feb: Snowmageddon hits American Northeast
Mar: end of coldest US winter in 25 years
Mar: end of warmest Canadian winter on record
Apr: record storms strike Miss., Alab., Ark.
Apr: warmest April on record
May: El Nino ends
May: storm Agatha devastates Guatemala
June: extreme heat waves in Africa, Middle East, East Asia
July: La Nina starts
July: Russian heat waves, giant wildfires
July: giant chunk of ice breaks off Petermann glacier Greenland
Aug: freak monsoon, giant floods in Pakistan
Sep: hottest day in LA city's history
Oct: strongest ever storm tropical hurricane hits Great Lakes
Nov: warmest or second warmest November on record

MITIGATION

USA: EPA moves to limit GHG emissions 12.24.

climate findings

A tad early, and it might be wrong, but clearly deserves a post:

"An analysis of average global temperatures through November by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies shows 2010 on pace to become the warmest year since the collection of temperature data began 130 years ago.
NASA previously ranked 2005 as its warmest year ever."

Headlines: December 2010 NASA Earth Observatory 12.10

NASA data table land-ocean temperature index more
New York Times green blog more
USC School for Journalism neon tommy blog more
Washington Post post carbon blog more

Union of Concerned Scientists: drought in Russia, floods in Pakistan and China, high temps in the US consistent with climate change projections. more

INITIAL SPIN

Juan Cole: the media as a security threat to America : the great Pakistani deluge never happened (don't tune in, it's not important) more

Bill McKibben: everything is negotiable, except with nature: you can't bargain about global warming with chemistry and physics more

--text posts are at the blistered orb--

climate november III 2010

--text blogs are at the blistered orb--

EVENTS

Northern Europe: lethally cold weather 12.1. and 12.2.
Germany: snow, ice, record cold in Berlin 12.3.
England: deep freeze 12.5. and 12.9.Scotland: deep freeze 12.6.
Pakistan: floodwaters still remain 12.9. and 12.11.
France: deep freeze 12.9. and record snow 12.9.
Minnesota: record snow collapses metrodome 12.12.

TRENDS

UK MET: crop failures, droughts within our kids' lifetimes 11.30.
UN WMO: scorching heat soon routine 11.30.
UK Tyndall Center: sharpest portrait of future to date 12.2.
UN FAO: food security wanes as world warms 12.5.
UK MET: threat to tropical forests 'greater than suspected' 12.6.

AMERICAN DISENLIGHTENMENT

EU: disaster capitalism comes to Ireland 12.1.
US: why Europeans think we're insane 12.1.US: Pelosi climate panel dies in Republican sweep of House 12.1.
US: climate-science critic wants to lead House climate panel 12.1.
US: Arizona cuts Medicaid for organ transplants 12.6.
US: Al Gore's climate group shrinking 12.6.
US: climate skeptics take House chairs on energy, science 12.6.
US: A McCoy: decline and fall of the American empire 12.5.
US/WikiLeaks: at COP-15 Copenhagen US, PRC culprits 12.7.
US: Tom Friedman: still digging 12.7.
US: study: top homebuilders fall short on green features 12.7.
US: economics education largely ignores climate change 12.7.
US: House blocks closing of Gitmo concentration camp 12.8.
US: Europeans criticize fierce US response to leaks 12.9.
US: no high-speed rail funds for states that don't want it 12.9.
US: Republicans block health aid for 9/11 workers 12.10.

DISENLIGHTENMENT HIGHLIGHT

US: Wikileaks reveals how US manipulated climate accord 12.3.

GLOBAL ENLIGHTENMENT

China completes track for world's longest high speed line 11.15.
China Shanghai-Beijing train 417kmh/260mph speed record 12.3.
China 380kmh/236mph Wuhan-Guangzhou train starts 12.4.
Venezuela's Chavez blames capitalism for deluges 12.5.
UN climate change talks in Cancun agree a deal 12.11.
UK: Cameron praises Cancun's new climate deal 12.11.
... and H Rosling's visualized data on world development youtube

MITIGATION

Cancun: scientists call for rationing in developed world 11.30.
India proposes way to monitor carbon pollution reductions 12.3.
Ocean-going ships to get energy efficiency ratings 12.5.
Russia will not renew Kyoto protocol 12.10.
CANCUN PERSPECTIVES

The Economist: facing the consequences 11.25.
The Economist: how to live with climate change 11.25.
Babbage: after climategate and Copenhagen 11.28.
A Revkin: coal trends still rule climate talks 11.29.
Bolivia assails rich, carbon market at Cancun talks 11.30.
Cancun climate change summit: week one in pictures 12.3.T. Athanasiou: the Cancun setup 11.30.
UN assures that rich won't force agreements on poor 12.5.
Der Spiegel: Wut ueber ein unmoralisches Angebot 12.7.
A Goodman: Cancun, climate change, and WikiLeaks 12.8.
M Stephen: countries least responsible are most threatened 12.8.
UK's Huhne: Cancun talks risk becoming car crash 12.9.
L Carlsen: cloistered climate talks 12.10.
Cancun--how Africa's voice has been hijacked 12.10.
Cancun climate change summit: the final day 12.10.M McCarthy: it's chaos in Cancun 12.10.
J Redman: Cancun--can we avert climate chaos? 12.10.
Spiegel: Klimapolitiker feiern Cancun-Kompromiss 12.11.
NYT: climate talks end with modest deal on emissions 12.12.
G Wynn: climate talks might need a profit motive 12.12.
Cancun--a surprising success 12.11.

climate findings

--text posts are at the blistered orb--

Originally I wanted to scan the lit and post about the "bumpy water interview" with D. Stammer (Hamburg) in Der Spiegel (germ., eng.) -- basically, for current-related and gravitational reasons sea level rise will be uneven; which means that the +2 m/+6.5 f rise we can expect IF the southern ice sheets don't slip is the average. There are (constant, not tidal) bulges & valleys on the sea surface. Florida is at a bulge. But then I saw Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, which contains the papers of last year's Four Degrees and Beyond conference at Oxford. [4 C = 7.5 F] This is important stuff.

THE UNFOLDING CHANGES

M G New et al. ed, four degrees and beyond: the potential for a global temp increase of four degrees and its implications
Phil Trans R Soc A vol. 369 (2011)

M New preface
Phil Trans R Soc A 369 (2011): 4-5

(here's an initial pic of what to expect; e.g. Africa's collapse)
M New, D Liverman, et al introduction
Phil Trans R Soc A 369 (2011): 6-19

UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL HEATING

(the +2 C window is now closed, so we might as well get on with it)
K Anderson A Bows beyond 'dangerous' climate change: emission scenarios for a new world
Phil Trans R Soc A 369 (2011): 20-44

(the orb will likely blister in fifty years' time)
R Betts et al when could global warming reach 4 C?
Phil Trans R Soc A 369 (2011): 67-84

(population dominates water stress in a +2 world;
climate dominates water stress in a + 4 world)
F Fung et al water availability in +2 C and +4 C worlds
Phil Trans R Soc A 369 (2011): 117-136

(2 meters--if we're lucky and the ice sheets hold)
R Nichols et al sea-level rise and its possible impacts
Phil Trans R Soc A 369 (2011): 161-181

(we'll be busier than one-armed coat hangers;
we gotta learn to tango with more negative feedback loops)
R Warren the role of interactions in a world implementing adaptation and mitigation solutions to climate change
Phil Trans R Soc A 369 (2011): 217-241

MEANS & ISSUES OF MITIGATION

N Bowerman et al implications for policy
Phil Trans R Soc A 369 (2011): 45-66

CIVIL EVOLUTION

(daunting challenges. severe impacts. urgent research)
P Thornton et al: agriculture in Africa in a 4+ C world
Phil Trans R Soc A 369 (2011): 117-136

(with a section on cognitive responses to uncertainty)
M Stafford Smith et al rethinking adaptation for a 4+ C world
Phil Trans R Soc A 369 (2011): 196-216

(deterministic assumptions don't match empirical evidence)
F Gemenne population displacements in a 4+ C world
Phil Trans R Soc A 369 (2011): 196-216

(global action is not going to stop climate change.
The world needs to look harder at how to live with it.)
[briefings]: facing the consequences--adapting to climate change
The Economist (Nov 27-Dec 3 1010) 85-88

(it won't be stopped but its effects can be made less bad)
[leader]: how to live with climate change
The Economist (Nov 27-Dec 3 1010) 15

NOTE THIS QUOTE

The climategate e-mails led to three inquiries in the United Kingdom. All of them were flawed in different ways. None of them, though, gave credence to the idea that "science and numbers were manipulated."

from Babbage, green view: the shadow of climategate
The Economist online (Nov 28 2010)

CLIMATE NEOLOGISM

"climate pariah"

... as in: "But the US, the world's biggest historical polluter and long isolated as a climate pariah, had something to cling to."
Coined by Damian Carrington in WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord in The Guardian 12.5.

climate november II 2010

--text blogs are at the blistered orb--

EVENTS

Montana: largest snowfall in one day, 20 in/51 cm 11.21.
South Dakota: storm upon storm 11.21.Planet: GHG attain new record levels, now at 387 ppm 11.24.

TRENDS

climate change means colder winters 11.16.
fear of new food crisis as prices soar 11.18.
expanding coal market in Asia, esp. in China 11.22.
India, China are bying US coal mines shale gas fields 11.18.
AMERICAN DISENLIGHTENMENT

USA: Chicago Climate Exchange calls it quits 11.17.
USA: NYT editorial "energy and the lame duck" 11.22.
USA: free market fundamentalism, fascism, and populism 11.15.
USA: Bush still at large 11.16.
USA: the two most abhorrent lies of Bush's memoir 11.22.
USA: the origins of America's intellectual vacuum 11.15.
USA: hiding from reality 11.19.
USA: military casualities in Iraqistan now 500,000+ 11.18.
USA: tea partiers, Ayn Rand, and scam artists 11.21.
USA: Obama's limo hog stands out at green NATO summit 11.19.
USA: cover-up of BP contamination of FL beaches 11.8.
USA: CBS funnels disinformation about gas reserves 11.15.
GLOBAL ENLIGHTENMENT

China admits it is world's biggest climate sinner 11.23. & 11.24.Canadian public completely at odds with gov't over climate 11.19.
Japan reconsidering no growth economies (essay by S Hill) 11.20.
MITIGATION

National Academy of Science climate stabilization targets 2010
US offshore windpower permits will be expedited 11.23.New York to get bike share 11.22.
Mexico: Cancun COP-16 and its challenges 11.28.
Cancun, climate summit host and example of threats 11.28.

ESSAYS 'N' STUFF

Wangari Maathai: Cancun must be about more than climate 11.26.
Vincent di Stefano: on the eve of Cancun 11.26.
Brendan Smith: fighting doom: the new climate politics 11.23.
Dimitry Orlov: but what is 'community'? 11.21.
Armond Cohen: a cleantech revolution in four easy steps 11.17.
Michael Moore: don't be lame duck dems: letter to congress 11.16.

Johann Hari: is it "Gaia"? Or rather "Medea"? 11.26.
... and check out:
J B Foster et al The Ecological Rift: Capitalism's War on Earth

CLIMATE NEOLOGISM

"Eco-Ayatollah"

... as in: "I rather expect the eco-ayatollahs to take a dim view of all my travels lately."
Coined by Jim Kunstler in where the black swan dwells 11.29.


... off-subject, but makes the eco-ayatollah Mad Hun happy (from BBC): Roger Penrose agrees with Kant on cyclic universe 27.11.

climate november I 2010

--text posts are at the blistered orb--

EVENTS

Amazon: drought deepens 11.12.

Florida: first case of Dengue fever arrives 11.11.

Thailand: severe flooding has left 181 people dead 11.10.
Haiti: hurricane Tomas triggers floods 11.7.

Vietnam: severe flooding has left 159 people dead 11.4.

Germany: a month's rainfall in one day 11.13.

Malaysia: clean-up begins after historic flooding 11.8.

TRENDS

last remaining pristine corals are in remote Pacific 11.12.
climate scientists plan campaigns against skeptics 11.8.

UN report warns of threat to progress from climate change 11.5.

PRC report warns climate change hurting China's crops 11.5.

AMERICAN DISENLIGHTENMENT

USA: Obama to boost natural gas development 11.12.

USA: Rep Shimkus (R-IL): God denies climate change 11.12.

USA: Rep Shimkus could lead House environ policy 11.13.

USA: GOP climate deniers vie to run Energy Committee 11.5.

USA: Rep Sensenbrenner (R-WI): let's put Climate Com on ice 11.8.

USA: most radical capitalism of all times is last hope 11.11.USA: states to draft their own climate plans since feds don't 11.8.
USA: Europe ponders US election results 11.14.

USA: a recipe for fascism 11.8.

USA: the 13 dumbest things Americans believe 11.13.

USA: America, land of the free to be stupid 11.6.

USA: America is now officially for sale 11.5.

USA: 50% of new Congressmen deny climate change 11.4.

GLOBAL ENLIGHTENMENT

Cancun COP16 climate talks -- Q & A 11.8.
For Cancun, activists consider the long view 11.12.

International Climate Court plan gains momentum 11.12.

350Earth: can art save the climate? 11.12.

China: update on the one-child policy 11.2.

MITIGATION

Malaysia: green motorcycles set to make debut 11.12.
UN climate panel calls for carbon & transport taxes 11.5.

ESSAYS 'n' STUFF

Ted Rall yes I can 11.12.

Joseph Stiglitz the rich make their own laws 11.7.

James Galbraith how conservatives abandoned free market link
blast from the past: Dan Froomkin Bush ends with a whimper

Germany's ex-gov speaker Heye declares Bush a retard 11.10.

.

climate findings

--text posts are at the blistered orb--

Lots of new work, e.g. Environ Res Letters, Geophys Res Letters, PNAS etc., is about the how-to of measurement. I didn't link to this. Nature has an interesting research cluster on city adaptation. The Tamino blog has good posts on the death spiral of the arctic ice. Geology has items on methane clathrates; one on how typhoons roiling the waters can unzip the deposits, another on how massively/abruptly the deposits, once unzipped, would let go. Coincidence? Science has items on the Eocene heatspike (+ 6 C degrees) and new docu of its correlation with CO2. Nice work, but I don't understand why this makes headlines (e.g. Sci Am), let alone why this gets published in 2010. 1950 would've make more sense, no? Do we need more proof? Or is this just disenlightenment zeigeist, whereby the obvious needs to be shown time and again?

THE UNFOLDING CHANGES

(evaporation up 1982-1997; soil moisture down 1998-2008)
M Jung recent decline in the global land evapotranspiration trend
Nature 467 (2010): 951-954

(additional warming of at least 5-6 C likely)
various climate change evidence from the geological record
Geological Society (London) conference statement Nov 2010
... press: Earth will take 100,000 years to recover 2 Nov 10

(three excellent posts by Tamino on the arctic melt)
G Foster history of arctic sea ice (part 1) Open Mind Oct 16
G Foster can we talk? Open Mind Oct 28
G Foster how likely? Open Mind Nov 3

(Nagoya, no Copenhagen, got work done!)
[staff] world gets 2020 vision for conservation 2 Nov 10
Nature 468 (2010): 14
[staff] geoengineering faces ban 2 Nov 10
Nature 468 (2010): 13-14
[staff] welcome and unexpected progress
Science 330 (2010): 742-743
... various global diversity outlook 3 UNEP (May 2010)
... 2 C global warming too high for diversity Die Zeit

(how to do science in the disenlightenment)
S Lewis how to beat the media in the climate street fight
Nature 468 (2010) online doi 10.1038/468007a

UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL HEATING

(when seafloor CH4 lets go, it does so abruptly)
N Bangs et al massive methane release triggered by erosion
Geology 38 (2010): 1019-1022

(I sure hope CH4 deposits are elsewhere when this happens!)
K Rogers et al mass failures, tropical cyclone, submarine canyons
Geology 38 (2010): 1051-1054

(learning more about the PT extinction: nasty causal cascades )
T Algeo et al anomalous sediment fluxes and bio consequences
Geology 38 (2010): 1023-1026

(proof of high CO2 when it was hot--who'd have guessed?)
P Pearson increased atmospheric CO2 in mid-eocene
Science 330 (2010): 763-764

(ditto)
P Bijl mid-eocene atmo CO2 and temperature variations
Science 330 (2010): 819-821

(summary of the OMG! CO2-climate link by Sci Am)
[staff] CO2 triggered a global warming event 40 mya
Scientific American Nov 4

[staff] Brazil's climate modellers are set to go global
Nature 468 (2010): 20

MEANS & ISSUES OF MITIGATION

(water-starved communities plant fog-harvesting forests)
G Vince out of the mist
Science 330 (2010): 750-751

(financial incentives alone won't fuel urban adaptation)
R Buckley climate economics: hot in the city
critical review of M Kahn Climatopolis (Basic Books 2010)
Nature 467 (2010): 915-916

(environmental review details 'unacceptable' impacts)
[staff] mountaintop minding plans close to defeat
Nature 467 (2010): 1021

(water management research must focus on urban areas)
[editorial] save our cities
Nature 467 (2010): 883-884

(scientists must help mayors to prepare for a warming world)
C Rosenzweig et al cities lead the way in climate action
Nature 467 (2010): 909-911

(it's time for a holistic science of society & environment)
L Bettencourt/G West a unified theory of urban living
Nature 467 (2010): 912-913

(truly green buildings: how skyscrapers could trap CO2)
R Armstrong / N Spiller synthetic biology: living quarters
Nature 467 (2010): 916-918

(new ranching techniques could shave 7% off agri GHGs)
P Thornton/M Herrero reduced livestock emissions in tropics
PNAS 107 (45: 2010) doi 10.1073/pnas.o912890107

CIVIL EVOLUTION

(kids learn to interact better in public)
C Saulter why public transit is good for kids Grist 1 Nov 2010

(how to reduce farmers' vulnerability to climate impacts)
FAO launches website on climate-smart agriculture
UN FAO newsfeed 4 Nov 2010