These posts include a brief mention of a number of news items relating to climate change. They don’t preclude treating any of these topics at more length in a separate post.
They can also serve as an open thread so that we can keep each other informed on important climate news.
A new study has looked at the contribution of glaciers to sea level rise based on observations of the Patagonian icefields between Chile and Argentina.
They found that the glaciers have lost volume on average “10 to 100 times faster” in the last 30 years, faster than at any time in the last 350 years.
Sea level rise acceleration/deceleration
He asks a series of pertinent questions, including why they bother with such a small data set. Tamino looked at global tide gauge and satellite data and came up with this:
You can inspect a larger image of the graph here.
Tamino says they “restrict consideration to the quadratic term of a quadratic polynomial fit from 1930 onward” which he sees as “pretty ignorant” and “maybe misleading”. He then re-analyses their own data and actually finds a recent acceleration.
Finally he says we need to look to physics rather than statistics if we want a view of the future. He comes up with this:
Not only will there likely be nonlinear response to thermal expansion of the oceans, when the ice sheets become major contributors to sea level rise, they will dominate the equation. Their impact could be tremendous, it could be sudden, and it could be horrible.
Northern hemisphere ozone alert
Ozone depletion is often viewed as an environmental problem that has been solved but the Antarctic ozone hole is not expected to recover fully until 2045-60. Meanwhile annual variations will depend mainly on weather conditions in the stratosphere. This year in the Arctic they have had a shocker with 40% depletion. That’s 10% more than the previous record.
This is a real issue if you happen to live in Scandinavia, Greenland and parts of Canada and Russia. The UK and northern Europe too if you look at the image provided.
From BEST to worst
A certain Berkeley astrophysicist, Richard Muller, has been critical of temperature records, both the reconstructed records of Hockey Stick fame and the modern instrumental record. He set up the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project (BEST) to create a new definitive record working from the same data, which everyone knows is adjusted for various reasons.
There was much hope invested in this project by the sceptics, including Anthony Watts. This is what he found, according to preliminary advice to Congress:
Follow the links at Tamino to see how the BEST has become the worst.
For a fuller account see The Economist (thanks for the heads-up, wilful), where we find that the so-called ‘bad temperature station’ complaint is also a load of cobblers.
Ocean acidification: past, present and yet to come
Skeptical Science reports on a study which grew two species of shellfish in seawater at various levels of pH representing the global average for specific points in time, pre-industrial (250ppm atmospheric CO2), modern day (390ppm), and CO2 levels expected by the year 2100 (750ppm) and 2200 (1500ppm).
Those sceptical of the deleterious effects of climate change should have a good look at what has already happened, ie the differences between 250ppm and 390ppm.
Soot (black carbon)
Skeptical Science also has a post on soot and global warming.
It’s not just about global warming. Soot causes the premature death of 2.4 million people each year.
Four from John D
John D supplies me with links from time to time, for which I am enormously grateful. Here are four from the last week worthy of your attention.
Biochar added to soil growing pastures grazed by livestock has the potential to reduce nitrous oxide emissions.
Green roofs can insulate city buildings, clean the air, make use of rainfall, grow food or beautify the surroundings.
Also by 2015, less than five years away, more than one in 20 cars sold in the United States will be hybrid, plug-in or full electric vehicles.
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions dropped a record-setting 5.8 percent in 2009, the largest percentage decline since recordkeeping began in 1990, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
All the more meritorious because GDP only fell by 2.2%
Goodies galore from Roger Jones
Holiday, deserved or not
Since I revived Climate clippings, I believe I haven’t missed a week. Now I’m going to miss two. The lame excuse is that we’ll be visiting my daughter and granddaughter in Adelaide and spending a bit of time on Kangaroo Island.