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Author |
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The tipping of the iceberg
New sea-level rise research, part 1: 'Most likely' 0.8 to 2.0 meters by 2100 |
Joseph Romm |
05 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Two major new studies, in Nature and Science, sharply increase the projected sea-level rise (SLR) by 2100. This post discusses the Science study ($ub. req'd), 'Kinematic Constraints on Glacier Contributions to 21st-Century Sea-Level Rise,' which concludes: On the basis of calculations presented here, we suggest that an improved estimate of the range of SLR to 2100 including increased ice dynamics lies between 0.8 and 2.0 m. ... these values give a context and start ... |
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| Topics: oceans, climate science, climate change impacts, climate (all these topics) |
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Kicking up a storm
Nature: Hurricanes are getting fiercer |
Joseph Romm |
05 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Nature has published a major analysis that supports my recent two-parter. As Nature explains: ... scientists have come up with the firmest evidence so far that global warming will significantly increase the intensity of the most extreme storms worldwide.The maximum wind speeds of the strongest tropical cyclones have increased significantly since 1981, according to research published in Nature this week. And the upward trend, thought to be driven by rising ocean tem ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate science, climate change impacts, severe weather, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics) |
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'Every other climate that has been warmed had better grapes'
Stunning interview with incoherent GOP denier running for Congress |
Joseph Romm |
04 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| My brother Dave lives in Minneapolis and has been interviewing RNC delegates. Here is Barb Davis White in her own words (audio stream here): White: My name is Barb Davis White and I'm running for the 5th Congressional District against Keith Ellison for the United States House of Representatives, which is called Congress. Romm: Where are you on global warming? White: Well, global warming really has not been proven. There are 30,000 scientists, including Al Gore's ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change skepticism, Congress, elections, interview, Minnesota, politics (all these topics) |
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I can see clearcuts now
Google knows what you're doing |
Eric de Place |
04 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Oh, Google, what would we ever do without you? Check out this Google Maps-generated image of the region near Cannon Beach, Oregon: The strange patchwork of brown? Those are clearcuts in the Coast Range. And many of them appear to be recent. What's really great is that you can zoom in so close that you can clearly see the bulldozed logging roads, a line of "leave trees," and a striated green that I'm guessing is first season re-growth of ... |
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| Topics: climate, deforestation, Oregon (all these topics) |
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Speak softly and carry a big hockey stick
Earth hotter now than in past 2,000 years |
Joseph Romm |
04 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The 'hockey stick' graph is a reconstruction of Northern Hemisphere temperatures over the past thousand years. It showed a sharp rise starting about a century ago. Global warming deniers and doubters have long attacked the graph asserting that we were as warm if not warmer hundreds of years ago. But a 2006 National Academy of Sciences report largely reaffirmed the analysis. A new peer-reviewed study by climatologists and earth scientists Michael Mann, Zhihua Zha ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, greenhouse-gas emissions (all these topics) |
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Breaking and Exiting
Another large section of Canadian ice shelf breaks loose |
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04 Sep 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 6:21 AM on 04 Sep 2008 In a predictable yet mildly troubling reminder of the Arctic's continued ice melt, researchers say yet another massive ice chunk has broken off from an ice shelf in Canada. The Serson Ice Shelf just saw its mass more than halved when two large sections broke off recently, leaving it about 47 square miles smaller. For those of you keeping track at home, this summer has seen 19 square mi ... |
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| Topics: Canada, climate, climate change impacts, news (all these topics) |
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Slow Food Nation: The plus-side of high gas prices
One farmer says 'peak oil' prompted energy-saving steps |
Russ Walker |
03 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Admit it, climate change is the kind of problem that leaves you wondering, 'What the heck can any one person do about it?' That's exactly how Patrick Holden said he felt about it during the 'Climate Change and Food' panel discussion last week at the Slow Food Nation conference in San Francisco. Holden has been an organic farmer for 30 years, and in his spare time runs Britain's Soil Association, which makes and enforces organic standards in the U.K. Holden's feelin ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, events, gas prices, slow food, video (all these topics) |
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I'll Huff and I'll Puff ...
Warming seas make strong storms stronger, says new study |
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03 Sep 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 1:39 PM on 03 Sep 2008 As Gustav, Hanna, Ike, and Josephine become household names, more research has been added to the ongoing debate over the impact of climate change on hurricanes. A new study published in Nature indicates that warming seas have not increased the intensity of your everyday hurricane, but have made the mightiest storms even mightier. In essence, "if the seas continue to warm, w ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, news, severe weather (all these topics) |
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Typhoon Marys and cyclone Janes
Why future Katrinas and Gustavs will be much worse, part 2 |
Joseph Romm |
03 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A lot of knee-jerk deniers (please don't write in -- I know that is redundant) misread 'part 1,' as I knew they would. I was not wading into the issue of whether global warming has already made intense tropical storms more common. That remains a great subject of debate, mostly because of the inadequacy of historical hurricane records, before the satellite era, and especially before WWII. That said, the North Atlantic seems special because much of the hurricane-formin ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, severe weather (all these topics) |
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Cluster frack
Rights of humans, rights of nature |
Erik Hoffner |
03 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Two items I've been tracking while away for a blissful two weeks of vacation here on the Atlantic shore, one hopeful, one awful: Hopeful: Ecuador is poised to grant rights to nature and ecosystems in a referendum this month. The idea originated in the U.S. -- in Pennsylvania -- as some small towns fought odious land uses like hog farms. Some language from the proposal is here. Rest assured that oil companies busily fouling Ecuadoran forests are not in favor. ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate equity, international politics, politics, wilderness (all these topics) |
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Stormy weather
Should environmentalists jump on climate disasters? |
Glenn Hurowitz |
03 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| There's a heated debate going on about whether environmentalists should jump on breaking climate disasters like Gustav and frame them in terms of global warming and other environmental issues. Open Left's Matt Stoller and Center for American Progress's Joseph Romm say yes, and 'anonymous environmental leader' says no (all are must-reads). In my recent book, Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party, I wrote about some research that might shed light on this question (th ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, politics, severe weather (all these topics) |
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Hurri-cane we stop these storms?
Why global warming means killer storms worse than Katrina and Gustav, part 1 |
Joseph Romm |
03 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Hurricanes can get much, much bigger and stronger than we have so far seen in the Atlantic. The most intense Pacific storm on record was Super Typhoon Tip in 1979, which reached maximum sustained winds of 190 mph near the center. On its wide rim, gale-force winds (39 mph) extended over a diameter of an astonishing 1,350 miles. It would have covered nearly half the continental United States. 'More than half the total hurricane damage in the U.S. (normalized for infla ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate science, oceans, severe weather (all these topics) |
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Warning signs from Hurricane Gustav
How did so much water get into a New Orleans canal? |
John McQuaid |
03 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Here's a question I'd like to know the answer to. Hurricane Gustav dealt New Orleans a glancing blow, passing it by to the west. Yet as the world saw, the city's Industrial Canal -- a large ship channel running north-south close to neighborhoods -- filled nearly to the top, and there was some alarming, if mostly harmless, overtopping due to wind and waves. Why did this happen, and what does it say about the city's vulnerabilities in future storms -- and Louisiana's ... |
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| Topics: Army Corps of Engineers, climate, Louisiana, Mississippi River, severe weather, wetlands (all these topics) |
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Henry Hudson would be delighted
North Pole an 'island' for first time in 125,000 years |
Joseph Romm |
03 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The fabled Northwest and Northeast passages are now open. That makes the North Pole an island for the first time in human history, most likely for the first time 'since the beginning of the last Ice Age 125,000 years ago.' In the last few days, however, Arctic ice melt has slowed, so we might not see a record this year, as the NSIDC daily graph makes clear: But whether a record is set this year has little bearing on the future of the Arctic. The National Snow ... |
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| Topics: Arctic, climate, climate change impacts, climate science, oceans (all these topics) |
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RNC: We're no doom-sayers on climate
Republican platform acknowledges climate change but spurns 'no-growth' radicalism |
Kate Sheppard |
02 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The Republican Party approved its 2008 platform yesterday, which it hailed in a press release as containing 'the most aggressive and innovative energy policy in Republican Party history.' But the approved version differs significantly from earlier drafts in the climate and energy realm. This line, which appeared in an earlier draft, was dropped: 'Increased atmospheric carbon has a warming effect on the earth.' While the final acknowledges the role of humans in cli ... |
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| Topics: climate, elections, energy, Muckraker, news, politics, Republican National Convention (all these topics) |
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Stick It to 'Em
Conclusions of 'hockey stick' graph stand up to further scrutiny |
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02 Sep 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 3:42 PM on 02 Sep 2008 The infamous "hockey stick" graph, which shows the northern hemisphere beginning to rapidly warm around the industrial age, has been backed up by new research. Michael Mann, who helped develop the 1998 graph that climate skeptics love to hate, is the lead author of the new study to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Ten years ago the ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change skepticism, climate science, news (all these topics) |
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Climate chaos and internet rumors
Deniers' talking points spread via the same process as that of all urban legends |
Gar Lipow |
02 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| John McGrath, a contributor to Grist, made an important comparison between how the internet contributes to making urban legends look legitimate and how it is used in spreading climate chaos denialism: It highlights the odd dynamic of the Internet: tiny, vocal, crazy-ass minorities can nevertheless be numerous enough on the Internet to appear more impressive than they are. So we get never-ending rumors about Barack Obama's birth, and now no doubt Sarah Palin's dau ... |
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| Topics: blogosphere, climate, mainstream media (all these topics) |
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Science debate 2008
A presidential pop quiz on energy, water, scientific integrity, oceans, and climate change |
Maywa Montenegro |
02 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Barack Obama's answers to the 14 top science questions facing America. (McCain is still working on his answers.) |
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| Topics: Barack Obama, climate, climate science, John McCain, politics (all these topics) |
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Ghosts of the 21st century
Disappearing owls, threatened forests, and the city-country conflict |
Kit Stolz |
02 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| "Ghost" is a word field biologists use to describe a species near the end of its time on earth. Often these endangered species are birds, but in a spectacular essay in a newly internet-friendly issue of the English literary journal Granta, Robert MacFarlane slightly expands the meaning of the word. He visits an obscure low-lying region of U.K., the Norfolk Fens, not far from the Wash, where numerous varieties of locals -- including plants, animals, and t ... |
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| Topics: climate, Oregon, politics, US Fish and Wildlife Service, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Dem greens
Where climate/energy issues stand in the Democratic Party |
David Roberts |
02 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Being an "issue" journalist can be frustrating for a number of reasons (most of which I'll reserve for a future post). One is the persistent temptation to fall into trainspotting mode -- waiting around for politicians or pundits to mention your issue. "He said the words 'climate change'! He mentioned solar power!" This stuff (which I do plenty of) has some value, but it can give a distorted impression of the larger political dynamic. So I want t ... |
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| Topics: climate, Democratic National Convention, energy, green jobs, national security, politics (all these topics) |
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Gustav, climate, drilling, McCain, Palin
Some enviros self-censor, but should progressives? |
Joseph Romm |
01 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A friend forwarded me an email titled "Gustav and Hannah" that was written to environmental activists by one of the top environmental leaders in this country. I am going to write on it at length because it is illustrative of the catastrophic messaging failure of the environmental community on issues of climate, government action, and energy. I strongly believe other progressives must not make the same mistakes. Here are key quotes from the email about ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate science, elections, John McCain, politics, presidential race 08, Sarah Palin, severe weather (all these topics) |
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DNC: Extending the olive Blanche
Sen. Blanche Lincoln on energy and climate legislation |
Kate Sheppard |
29 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Arkansas Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln spoke about conservation at the National Wildlife Federation event in Denver this week. Since Lincoln is one of the cosponsors of the 'Gang of 10' energy bill -- a compromise that includes both investment in renewables and some offshore drilling -- we caught up with her afterward to talk about energy policy: |
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| Topics: Arkansas, climate, Democratic National Convention, energy, Muckraker, politics, video (all these topics) |
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The storm of the century (so far)
Will Gustav be the next Katrina? |
Joseph Romm |
29 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| On August 23, 2005, a tropical depression formed 175 miles southeast of Nassau. By the next day, it had grown into tropical storm Katrina and was intensifying rapidly. Early in the evening on August 25, Hurricane Katrina made landfall near North Miami Beach. Even though it was only a Category 1 storm, with sustained wind speeds of about 80 miles-per-hour, it caused significant damage and flooding, and took 14 lives. The hurricane's quick nighttime trip across ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, Louisiana, severe weather (all these topics) |
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Full Boris
London mayor releases plan for adapting to climate change |
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29 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 1:45 PM on 29 Aug 2008 London Mayor Boris Johnson unveiled a draft plan Friday to help the city mitigate and adapt to climate change. Johnson put special attention to water conservation, calling for mandatory metering, increased efficiency, improved drainage, and rainwater harvesting. He also envisions more trees and green space. Environmentalists said the adaptation strategy was a good step, but said measures to cut ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change adaptation, climate change mitigation, London, news, placemaking, water crisis (all these topics) |
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Industry Try Again
Industry groups sue Interior over polar bear |
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29 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 1:13 PM on 29 Aug 2008 The U.S. Interior Department has been sued yet again over polar bears, this time by five industry groups that say the agency's regulations for protecting bears unfairly single out Alaska businesses' contribution to climate change. When the polar bear was declared a threatened species because of climate change, Interior went to great lengths to note that the ruling should not be used to block greenho ... |
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| Topics: Alaska, business, climate, Department of Interior, greenhouse-gas emissions, litigation, news, polar bears (all these topics) |
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