Monthly Archives: September 2005
Forecasting “Tipping Points” in the Climate System
The term “tipping point” has been used to describe a change in the environment such that a different environment regime results. This term has been applied most recently with respect to the Arctic sea ice coverage and climate (e.g., see … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Science Reporting
What About Antarctic Sea Ice Trends?
There is considerable media attention on Arctic sea ice trends, as we have discussed in our last few weblogs. The Independent highlights their latest news release as “Sea ice melts to record low because of global warming”. If this news … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Science Reporting
More on Arctic Sea Ice
The news media releases on Arctic sea ice continue, with caveats buried deep in the articles, if at all. An example of the latest release is from the BBC on September 28th entitled “Arctic ice ‘disappearing fast’.” No mention is … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Science Reporting
Media Cherrypicking of the Areal Coverage of Arctic Sea Ice
There was a news report on September 16, 2005 in the online edition of “The Independent” which highlighted that “Global warming (is) ‘past the point of no return” (payment required to view the entire article). The article used sea ice … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Science Reporting
Is Global Warming Spatially Complex?
The short answer is Yes. As discussed in Heat storage within the Earth system, the appropriate climate metric to assess global warming is ocean heat content in Joules. As was shown in that 2003 paper, the radiative imbalance of the … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Change Metrics
Comment on Real Climate Response as to “What is a First-Order Climate Forcing?”
A very useful dialog on the issue as to what is a first order climate forcing was initiated by Real Climate. The comment can be read on their web site at the URL listed above. My response, which I posted … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Change Forcings & Feedbacks
Are Today’s Droughts Exceptional?
We published a paper this year in Pure and Applied Geophysics entitled “Drought 2002 in Colorado – An unprecedented drought or a routine drought?“. We concluded that the recent drought was not exceptional and that the state is actually more … Continue reading
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Filed under Vulnerability Paradigm
A New Integrated Climate/Environmental Activity: the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI)
The recognition that environmental, including climate, issues require an integrated assessment is being implemented by NEESPI. This is an international effort including USA and Russian scientific involvement. The Science plan states, “Climatic changes in Northern Eurasia (20% of the global … Continue reading
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Filed under Vulnerability Paradigm
Comment on Webster et al. September 16, 2005 Science Article “Changes in Tropical Cyclone Number, Duration, and Intensity in a Warming Environment”
The September 16,2005 article by Webster et al. in Science concludes that there has been a large increase in the number and proportion of hurricanes reaching Saffir-Simpson category 4 and 5 hurricanes over the past decade. They report that these … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Change Metrics
Additional Evidence as to Why Land-Use/Land-Cover Change is a First-Order Climate Forcing
A September 13, 2005 NASA Press release entitled “Tropical Deforestation Affects Rainfall in the U.S. and Around the Globe” reports on recent research work led by Roni Avissar of Duke University that has provided further evidence of the importance of … Continue reading
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Filed under Climate Change Forcings & Feedbacks
