Climate Change
Tag archives for Climate Change
The Climate Hockey Stick is Wrong!
Posted by Greg Laden on March 22, 2013 This is a hockey stick: This is the Grim Reaper’s Scythe: This is global temperature over the last 10,000 years projected into the immediate future using good scientific estimates: You decide. Should the Hockey Stick be replaced with the Grim Reaper’s Scythe? More information on the climate change graphic HERE. See more climate change graphics…
This could be HUGE: Obama Will Use Nixon-Era Law to Fight Climate Change
Posted by Greg Laden on March 15, 2013 From Bloomberg President Barack Obama is preparing to tell all federal agencies for the first time that they have to consider the impact on global warming before approving major projects, from pipelines to highways. The result could be significant delays for natural gas- export facilities, ports for coal sales to Asia, and even new forest…
Arctic Sea Ice: A System In Collapse
Posted by Greg Laden on March 2, 2013 
For the last 25 years or so there has been a decrease in the amount of ice that remains on the surface of the Arctic Ocean every summer. This is a trend that can be attributed to global warming, which in turn, can be attributed to the steady release of previously fossilized Carbon to the…
Arctic Ice Loss
Posted by Greg Laden on February 27, 2013 You all know that the Arctic Ice melts more each summer than ever before. In a few years, the Arctic will be ice free during the summer. The rate of annual melting is greater than expected even just a few years ago. Please note that the increasing melt of Arctic sea ice does not bode…
City of Angels Will Dump Coal by 2025
Posted by Greg Laden on February 26, 2013 
Last February 17th, there was a big rally at the Los Angeles City Hall where people demanded action on climate change and an end to our reliance on fossil fuel. The city of Los Angeles gets 39% of its electricity from coal fired plants, so that would be hard. But today, we’ve learned that “…Los…
How the US Navy is Leading the Charge on Clean Energy and Climate Change
Posted by Greg Laden on February 26, 2013 
There will be a discussion on Climate Desk Live about this topic tomorrow, Feb 27th. Details and access to the event are HERE. Increasingly, the US Navy is leading the charge towards clean energy, which can in turn impact national security an even climate change. Through investments in biofuels, construction of a more energy-efficient fleet,…
CO2 is plant food, right?
Posted by Greg Laden on February 26, 2013 See Peter’s original post here, which also covers the recent alarming finding by NASA regarding Eastern US forests. EG, ” The warming climate this century has caused new stresses on trees, such as insect pest outbreaks and the introduction of new pathogens. Scientists consider both climate change and disease to be dominant driving forces in…
Obama’s decision on the Keystone Pipeline IS a legacy making or breaking thing.
Posted by Greg Laden on February 24, 2013 
Is there a problem with John Abraham’s argument about Obama’s Legacy? John Abraham wrote a piece in the Guardian titled Keystone XL decision will define Barack Obama’s legacy on climate change: Does the president have courage to say ‘no’ to a project that will lock us into decades of dependency on this dirty energy? in…
Educate yourself about the Keystone XL Pipeline. Please.
Posted by Greg Laden on February 23, 2013 I was distressed to find many people who are essentially pro-environment and who generally understand climate change science being less than terribly shocked about the prospect of the Keystone XL pipeline being built. Then I began to realize that many people don’t realize the order of magnitude of the problem. I’m writing a blog post…
Forward on Climate Rally – February 17, 2013
Posted by Greg Laden on February 21, 2013 “Thank you to the nearly 50,000 who demonstrated on Presidents Day Weekend at the Washington Monument, the thousands at 20+ solidarity rallies across the country, and the more than one million online activists who stood up and spoke out to tell President Obama that right now its time to move Forward on Climate.”
Climate and Weather: Does your TV weather reporter get it?
Posted by Greg Laden on February 20, 2013 
You hear, again again, that climate and weather are not the same thing. This has led to assertions such as “you can’t attribute a single weather event to climate change.” But climate and weather are not distinctly different. Climatologists and meteorologists have made statements like this because people do confuse and conflate current conditions and…
Charge of the Lite Brigade
Posted by Greg Laden on February 18, 2013 
On February 17th, some 40,000 people showed up at an event in Washington DC in order to draw attention to the most pressing issue of our time: Climate Change. Another group of people also attended that rally. They represented the Climate Science Denialists, which in the US overlaps considerably with the Tea Party. They wore…
US Drought
Posted by Greg Laden on February 14, 2013 From US Drought Monitor:
Climate Change and Civil Disobedience
Posted by Greg Laden on February 13, 2013 At 11:30 AM eastern time today, an act of “civil disobedience will take place around at the East Gate of the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, just east of the picture-postcard zone.” #NoKXL is the hashtag. It is time, apparently. This is a time when more of the money that is out there is in…
CO2 and Ocean Acidification
Posted by Greg Laden on February 11, 2013 This graphic is from GRID-Arendal, a Norwegian Foundation collaborating with the UN Environment Programme. It shows CO2 concentrations in the ocean going up over a period of 20 eyars, and the corresponding drop in pH over the same time period. Ocean acidification is a serious effect of climate change. There are more climate change related…
Finding Nemo
Posted by Greg Laden on February 10, 2013 
Climate experts have pointed out that Nemo, the very bad nor’easter that just hit the Northeastern US and Maritimes, is partly an effect of global warming. Some meteorologists have responded with an incorrect response, a recitation of a now tired and useless mumbling retort that I’m afraid may even have it origin among scientists who…
Extreme Weather in the US Northeast and Climate Change
Posted by Greg Laden on February 8, 2013 This graph shows the extremes in one-day precipitation in a given month relative to the amount of precip in that month for the Northeastern US. So, if the green bar is at 30%, that means that that 30% of month’s precip fell in one event. The way this is computed is a little complicated because…
Global Warming = Drought = Higher Food Prices
Posted by Greg Laden on February 8, 2013 Here’s a graph from the USDA: This comes from a post by Peter Sinclair: USDA: Warming Will Devastate Agriculture. Also from that post, this interview with Phil Robertson of Michigan State University related to the question of C02 as “plant food.”
CNN has not done a good job reporting climate change…
Posted by Greg Laden on February 8, 2013 … but this can change, according to a report from Media Matters. CNN founder Ted Turner said in 2011 that climate change is “probably the most serious … problem that humanity has ever faced,” adding that we need to “increase the amount of the debate” to motivate people to take action. Unfortunately, the network he…
“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!
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.
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?
Wall Street Journal: Misleading Statistics in Climate Change Editorial
Posted by Greg Laden on January 25, 2013 The Wall Street Journal recently published and editorial by Bjorn Lomborg which uses misleading statistics to justify utterly inappropriate delays in addressing climate change. I would like to direct you to a response to that editorial: In WSJ op-ed, Bjorn Lomborg urges delay with misleading stats
, which is now available for the 
