Climate Change
Significant Figures by Peter Gleick
Category archives for Climate Change
The Last Time Atmospheric CO2 was at 400 parts per million Humans Didn’t Exist
Posted by Peter Gleick on May 10, 2013 The planet has passed a disturbing landmark, a marker on a continuing highway to climate disruption. On May 9th, the NOAA and the Mauna Loa observatory reported that atmospheric CO2 levels touched 400 parts per million. Before humans started burning fossil fuels, they were around 280 parts per million. The last time atmospheric CO2…
A Step toward Fixing the Colorado River
Posted by Peter Gleick on May 10, 2013 The Colorado River, recently named America’s most endangered river, supports millions of people in the American Southwest and northwest Mexico and helps irrigate millions of acres of land. It is shared by seven states in the U.S. and Mexico, through a complex series of legal agreements and treaties. Yet every drop of water on the river…
Iconic Curves #2: On Exponential Curves, “Hockey Sticks,” and Environmental Crises
Posted by Peter Gleick on April 10, 2013 On April 2nd, I posted three iconic graphs showing some of the clear observational evidence that we’re changing the climate. That post produced a substantial, and largely thoughtful response, and a request for more information and data along these lines. Here are three more, along with a bonus fourth, all with a theme of exponential…
Three iconic graphs showing the climate fix we’re in.
Posted by Peter Gleick on April 2, 2013 Here are three iconic graphs (unfortunately, there are many, many more) showing just some of the clear observational evidence that we’re changing the climate. The first is the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, measured at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii. It shows the little ups and downs in concentration that varies with the seasons,…
World Water Day 2013
Posted by Peter Gleick on March 21, 2013 Some thoughts for today: the bad news and good news for World Water Day. [First, I think every day should be World Water Day, not just March 22nd, but hey, that’s just me.] Stop taking your tap water for granted. Go to your tap, draw a glass of water, and drink it. Then remember that…
Climate Change and the Integrity of Science redux
Posted by Peter Gleick on March 21, 2013 Nearly two years ago, Science magazine published the following Lead Letter, signed by 255 members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences addressing attacks on the integrity of climate science. The science has continued to strengthen, the evidence in real world observations has become even stronger and more obvious. In response, in the past few months, there…
An Inevitable Headline in 2014: “Planet’s CO2 level reaches 400 ppm for first time in human existence.”
Posted by Peter Gleick on March 7, 2013 Sometime, about one year from now, the front pages of whatever decent newspapers are left will carry a headline like the one above, announcing that for the first time in human existence (or in nearly a million years, or 3 million years, or 15 million years), the global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide – the…
(Mis)Understanding Sea-Level Rise (SLR) and Climate Impacts
Posted by Peter Gleick on February 26, 2013 One of the most important and threatening risks of climate change is sea-level rise (SLR). The mechanisms are well understood, and the direction of changes in sea-level is highly certain – it is rising and the rate of rise will accelerate. There remain plenty of uncertainties (i.e., a range of possible outcomes) about the timing…
Climate change, snow and ice, and water resources
Posted by Peter Gleick on February 20, 2013 One of the reasons that climate change is such a big issue is because the global climate is an integral part of the Earth’s entire ecosystem, tied to so many of the big and little things that society cares about. Figuring out how all these complicated pieces tie together is hard, as is linking these…
The Keystone XL Pipeline: Red herring, symbol, or a piece of a puzzle?
Posted by Peter Gleick on February 10, 2013 It is time we just said “no.” There is growing attention to climate change in the media; and there is a growing realization that decisions we make today will have a lasting effect on the world’s climate tomorrow. But there is still a gap – a chasm really – between the reality of climate change…