Climate and weather
Category archives for Climate and weather
“Belief” in Climate Change, The Weather, and Political Party
Posted by Greg Laden on February 7, 2013 It seems that people “believe” in climate change (really, global warming in particular) when it it hot out more than at other times. And by “people” I mean the population in general. It turns out that Democrats don’t change their position on climate change as the temperature outside changes (they already know it is real)…
Republicans: US Government will wait 2 more years to address climate change
Posted by Greg Laden on February 6, 2013 … at any serious level, and then, only if enough Republicans get thrown out of the House to allow committee work and legislation to happen. From The Hill: House Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans have rebuffed Democrats’ bid to require the high-profile panel to hold hearings on links between climate change, extreme weather and threats…
Annual Amount of Carbon Released Into Atmosphere
Posted by Greg Laden on February 6, 2013 Here are two graphs that show the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, mainly as CO2 and mainly form the burning of fossil fuels, per year, from various sources for a long span of time. Both graphs are based on the same data set. the first graph was created by the Carbon Dioxide Information…
Minnesota Moose
Posted by Greg Laden on February 6, 2013 Minnesota has two populations of moose, one in the northwestern part of the state, one in the northeastern part of the state. Both are in decline. The decline seems to be mainly due to disease, which in turn, seems to be exacerbated by the occurrence of shorter, warmer winters and longer summers. Today, the Minnesota…
How much can the sea level go up with global warming and how fast will it happen?
Posted by Greg Laden on February 6, 2013 
According to some estimates, if sea levels rose one meter, Boston would lose 3% of it’s land surface, Washington DC a mere 1%. Tampa and Miami would lose 18% and 15% respectively. New Orleans would lose 91%. A six meter rise would result in much larger losses. Norfolk, Virginia and Miami Florida would be essentially…
Climate Change is Real Despite Fox News
Posted by Greg Laden on February 4, 2013 
Media Matters takes Fox News to Task. Watch the reasonable person talk, then watch the Republican climate science denialist lie: Here is a graph from Media Matters that you should post on your Facebook page and elsewhere: Spread the word!
Arctic Sea Ice Extent (reduction of): Graphic
Posted by Greg Laden on February 3, 2013 Here’s a graph showing the extent of arctic sea ice as measured directly and indirectly for the last several hundred years: This graphic is from Skeptical Science, where you can also download a higher res version and learn more about the background for these data. Also, on that page is a link to a large…
The Earth’s Climate Does Not Care…
Posted by Greg Laden on February 2, 2013 … what political party you are a member of… Climate scientist Anthony Leiserowitz drops some serious knowledge on “Moyers & Company”. In two bullet points, he describes exactly what Obama needs to say about global warming and what we can do to stop climate change. Let’s hope Obama watches Bill Moyers videos. From here.
Fire and Climate Change
Posted by Greg Laden on February 2, 2013 
From the AGU fall meeting, 2012 Land area burned by fires has increased in the United States over the past 25 years, consistent with a trend toward climate conditions more conducive to fire. In contrast, fires for agricultural and forest management show declining trends in the western U.S. despite overall increases in wildfire activity and…
How can anyone think that global warming isn’t real? Here’s how:
Posted by Greg Laden on February 2, 2013 Skeptical Science is a great source for information about climate change. One of the coolest things they’ve got over there is a moving GIF demonstrating how the folks in the climate science denialism industry try to convince people that global warming isn’t real. This involves cherry picking data to show small segments of time with…
Global Temperatures since 1850
Posted by Greg Laden on February 1, 2013 Anthropogenic global warming is a long term phenomenon that is caused by the release of Carbon, in the form of Carbon Dioxide, from fossil deposits, though burning of fuels such as oil, natural gas, and coal. There are other human causes as well, but some of those relate to the use of fossil fuels (such…
Are we having more forest fires in the US?
Posted by Greg Laden on January 30, 2013 
I’m not sure about the NUMBER of fires. That might be hard to count. If five small fires emerge and are put out, there are five fires. If five fires emerge, join into one configuration, and wipe out a handful of mountain villages in the Rockies, that’s one fire. It might be better to look…
Whispers from the Ghosting Trees
Posted by Greg Laden on January 29, 2013 
Whispers from the Ghosting Trees A guest post by Gail Zawacki, who blogs at Wit’s End. While we hustle busily through the necessities of our lives, wrapped up in our daily preoccupations – our obligations to our families, our jobs, and our dreams – at the same time all around the world, trees are silently…
Jennifer Francis at the Weather and Climate Summit
Posted by Greg Laden on January 27, 2013 Published on Jan 25, 2013 Session 6: Dr. Jennifer Francis – Rutgers University Topic: Wacky Weather and Disappearing Arctic Sea Ice: Are They Connected?
2012-2013 climate review and outlook
Posted by Greg Laden on January 25, 2013 With Masters, Mann, Hayhoe and Douglass. From Climate Denial Crock of the Week.
Congratulations to Michael Mann
Posted by Greg Laden on January 24, 2013 Michael Mann is one of the key climate scientists of the day. History will crown Mann as one of the great heroes who defended the freedom to do science rationally despite constant attacks from mean spirited and ignorant, self interested, politically motivated, oil-money-soaked climate science denialists. You know of Michael Mann as the coiner of…
2012 Was The Hottest Year on Record (NOAA)
Posted by Greg Laden on January 23, 2013 NOAA says 2012 was the hottest year on record. According to the National Climatic Data Center of NOAA, 2012 was the hottest year on record in the US lower 48: According to NOAA scientists, the average temperature for the contiguous U.S. for 2012 was 55.3°F, which was 3.2°F above the 20th century average and 1.0°F…
We’re gonna do the climate change thing
Posted by Greg Laden on January 21, 2013 Some may deny the science of climate change, but we’re not listening to them any more. Hat tip to Peter Sinclair for this clip:
Anthony Watts is threatening to sue me
Posted by Greg Laden on January 18, 2013 As I mentioned, I’m busy, so I’ll just do this in pictures, kinda like a cartoon: There was no “walk back” by Joe. He merely added some links. The results of the poll so far: Personally, I’m hoping for “Force him” … that would be fun to watch. Meanwhile, there is a lesson here. Science…
Greg Laden, liar.
Posted by Greg Laden on January 17, 2013 
I know, right? Anthony Watts, of the science-denialist Whats Up with That blog, has got his shorts in a knot because of a post I wrote indicating that he is a boob. He is upset because in a screen shot of him talking about a totally absurd pseudo-scientific claim that should have been rejected out…
Seven Lessons To Learn In Order To Save The Planet (Updated)
Posted by Greg Laden on January 15, 2013 
I was a graduate student in Harvard’s Anthropology Department, which meant I had no funding. I was in the final writing stage of my thesis, and the problem I had was that teaching interesting biological anthropology (which I could do full time if I wanted) was too distracting from the mundane yet mentally challenging task…
An Assessment of Climate Under Global Warming
Posted by Greg Laden on January 14, 2013 A Draft National Climate Assessment has been released by the “National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee.” You can download it here … warning: it is a PDF file way over 100 megabytes The report affirms that climate is changing and that this change is primarily caused by human activities, mostly the release of fossil…
So, is global warming stopping all of the sudden? (No)
Posted by Greg Laden on January 12, 2013 
The UK Met Office, a climate agency, released some information about the immediate future, based on modeling. Briefly, it notes that natural cooling effect may temporarily ameliorate the increase in temperatures caused by global warming in some locals; it does not say that global warming is attenuated in any way whatsoever. It is more of…
NOAA: 2012 Warmest Year on Record for the US 48
Posted by Greg Laden on January 9, 2013 
Looking just at the contiguous 48 states of the US, NOAA has determined that 2012 was the warmest year on record. It was also ranked second in “extreme” weather events including fires, major storms, and drought. Tornado activity was less than average. The report came out yesterday and states: In 2012, the contiguous United States…
Debunking climate change denialism
Posted by Greg Laden on January 9, 2013 
Climate change science denialism has pretty much run its course. We’ve been experiencing a large number of climate change related events (see this list for a brief summary) lately. It may well be that the number per year of such alarming events will go down and up over time. It may be that we will…
Australia’s BoM no AGW, Tasmanian Fire Video, and a Koala. #BigAussieHeat
Posted by Greg Laden on January 8, 2013 
First, a word about the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s position on climate change, heat, and fires. It has been suggested (by a commenter here) that the BoM is claiming that the current heat wave is not related to climate change, but rather, a matter of natural variability and a late arriving monsoon. But that is…
The Australian Heat Wave
Posted by Greg Laden on January 7, 2013 
Australia is experiencing a heat spell. The Climate Information Services of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has issued a special statement (I’ll provide some details below). This is not unexpected, since over the last few years global warming due to the human release of large amounts of fossil Carbon into the atmosphere has been heating…
Global Warming Moves South #BigAussieHeat
Posted by Greg Laden on January 7, 2013 
Summer is coming on strong south of the Equator, and in Australia this has meant unprecedented record high temperatures, and in the state of Tasmania, severe brush fires that have destroyed numerous homes, adding to the bad news from fires in the southeastern mainland. Prime Minister Julia Gillard said “And while you would not put…
Is Greenland’s Ice Melting Way Fast, and Why? You can help.
Posted by Greg Laden on January 6, 2013 
You know about Albedo. No not Libido, Albedo. Sunlight is to varying degrees reflected off the surface of the earth more or less back into space. That is Albedo. The vast regions of snow and ice covered glacial surfaces in the northern and southern Polar regions contributes to a good amount of the Earth’s Albedo.…
If Earth was your mother, she’d hold you under water in one rocky hand until you no longer bubbled
Posted by Greg Laden on January 1, 2013 
A collection of videos … that you will enjoy. BBC Wonders of Life Trailer: Climate 2013: Perspectives of 8 Scientists: Chasing Ice movie reveals largest iceberg break-up ever filmed: Kathleen Dean Moore at Nobel Conference 48 on the greatest violation of human rights ever seen: With all due respect to the introducers, the talk actually…
, which is now available for the 
