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Climate change: The measure of global warming
AT NOON on May 4th the carbon-dioxide concentration in the atmosphere around the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii hit 400 parts per million (ppm). The average for the day was 399.73 and researchers at the observatory expect this figure, too, to exceed 400 in the next few days. »Emissions: Green wheels
BY THE 1950s traffic in California had become so heavy that anti-smog demonstrators took to the streets. China’s cities have now reached a similar stage, minus the street protests, and local and national governments are increasingly following American and European regulators in imposing limits on emissions by new cars of nitrogen oxides (NOX), hydrocarbons and fine soot particles. »Climate science: A sensitive matter
OVER the past 15 years air temperatures at the Earth’s surface have been flat while greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to soar. The world added roughly 100 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010. That is about a quarter of all the CO₂ put there by humanity since 1750. »Climate-change laws: Beginning at home
GOVERNMENTS like to cite external constraints-such as meeting the conditions for an international bail-out-when pushing through unpopular policies. But with measures to deal with climate change, the opposite prevails. Each round of intergovernmental talks on cutting emissions and compensating victims seems to achieve less than the one before. »Free exchange: Heated debate
WHEN Superstorm Sandy roared ashore in late October and the lights of lower Manhattan went out, New Yorkers were given a stark vision of a possible future. Climate-change science is still a realm of great uncertainty but there is consensus that the planet is warming dangerously and that people are to blame. »Climate change: Theatre of the absurd
NEVER let it be said that climate-change negotiators lack a sense of the absurd. Thousands of politicians, tree-huggers and journalists descended on Doha this week, adding their mite of hot air to the country that already has the world’s highest level of carbon emissions per head. The feeling of unreality is apt. »Drought and climate change: Cloud nein
When the worst drought in 60 years hit America’s corn belt this summer, many people wondered if it was caused by climate change. »Carbon markets: Complete Disaster in the Making
WHAT would you say about a market that has helped reduce carbon emissions by a billion tonnes in seven years, attracted $215 billion of green investments to developing countries (more than any private environmental fund) and cut the cost of climate-change mitigation by $3.6 billion? »Rio+20: Many “mays” but few “musts”
A DEAL is one thing. A deal that means progress another. By the end of the three-day UN environment summit due to end on June 23rd in Rio de Janeiro, a hundred-plus national leaders and representatives were expected to approve a 283-point agreement negotiated in advance by their envoys. The gathering was called Rio+20, in reference to an important environment conference in the city in 1992. »Climate change: Cold comfort
Better get a pair of shorts A FLOATING MOUNTAIN of grey and white ice, castellated and crevassed like an Alpine ridge, the iceberg is vast: the size of two aircraft carriers, maybe more. Scale is hard to judge in the Arctic because of its ubiquitous icy-white backdrops.Yet much the biggest part of the iceberg—perhaps nine times the size of the visible part—is submerged and invisible. »The science: Uncovering an ocean
NY-ALESUND IS a special place in Arctic science. A huddle of wooden buildings by an icy fjord on Norway’s island of Spitsbergen, high in the Barents Sea, it is the world’s most northerly civilian settlement. »Geoengineering: Implicit promises
FOR the past few years, a European collaboration called IMPLICC (Implications and Risks of Novel Options to Limit Climate Change) has been looking at what it might mean to engineer the climate, by reducing the amount of sunshine that reaches the Earth’s surface. A lot of IMPLICC’s work, like much else in climate science, has taken the form of computer modelling. »Most popular
20 May, 19:31, guardian - Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where armchair experts gave up fighting over whether climate change is occurring? This spring, I began receiving calls and emails from colleagues about a strange little book that was mailed to environmental science professors around the country. This was a big mailing, in total, a reported 100,000 copies were sent out. More »
20 May, 01:10, reuters - Extreme global warming is less likely in coming decades after a slowdown in the pace of temperature rises so far this century, an international team of scientists said on Sunday. More »
19 May, 21:20, guardian - But forecast global temperature rise of 4C heralds disaster for large swaths of planet with oceans absorbing most global warming. Some of the most extreme predictions of global warming are unlikely to materialise, new scientific research has suggested, but the world is still likely to be in for a temperature rise of double that regarded as safe. More »
20 May, 00:50, physorg - China will not pay for CO2 emissions by its airlines on flights within Europe, a top civil aviation official reportedly said after the European Commission warned eight Chinese firms face fines for nonpayment. More »
19 May, 21:20, guardian - New temperature norms under climate change will increase weather-related deaths in metropolitan areas in coming decades. New York city could experience up to 22% more deaths from extreme summertime heat in the coming decade under global warming, according to a study of the impact of climate trends. More »
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