New research by U.S. environmental and geo-science academicians shows a distinct warming trend in the nation’s breadbasket over the last two centuries.
The scientists drew that conclusion after examining 65,987 weather records, recording the daily mean temperatures since 1828. Those weather observations, made by doctors in pioneer forts and later Weather Bureau officials, helped Dorian J. Burnette and David Stahle of the University of Arkansas, with the help of geographer Cary Mock of the University of South Carolina, reconstruct the climate of Manhattan, Kansas, in the center of nation. The scientists’ findings are published in the March 15 issue ofJournal of Climate.
What they found was that 19th century temperatures were notably cooler than those in the 20th Century and the first decade of the 21st Century.
Fifty-five countries that combine to produce 78 percent of all global greenhouse emissions from energy use have offered pledges to reduce that output by 2020, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The group includes China and the United States.
The national pledges were required under the Copenhagen Accord forged at the climate change talks in Copenhagen in December. Pledges cover the period after the end of 2012 when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol emissions targets expires.
By Bill Sullivan Green Right Now
Anyone who has ever traveled to a big-time ski resort knows that conquering the mountain is a daunting task – and an expensive one, too.
For the 2009-10season, a one-day lift ticket at Vail (Colorado) is $97 for an adult. Over at Aspen/Snowmass, a two-day advance purchase pass will set you back $191.
Of course, that’s just the beginning. If you’re a flatlander or a relative novice, you’ll probably have to rent equipment. (Plan on $40 a day and up.) If you’ve never skied at all, you’ll want to get a few pointers before climbing onto that lift: At Vail, a one day beginner lesson at Golden Peak Ski and Snowboard School is $165.
Half a million inhabitants displaced. About 70,000 jobs lost. A major source of both food and revenue virtually wiped out.
That’s the grim forecast for Egypt’s Nile Delta, as rising seawaters threaten the nation’s most fertile food-producing region.
Over the last century, the Mediterranean Sea has risen about six inches, according to a recent government study. The introduction of so much salt water already has forced some farmers off their land, while others struggle to find ways to protect their homes and livelihoods.
Global warming is making hot days hotter, rainfall and flooding heavier, hurricanes stronger and droughts more severe. This intensification of weather and climate extremes will be the most visible impact of global warming in our everyday lives. Here are 13 ways you’ll experience climate change, according to the National Wildlife Federation:
If 2009 left you a little hot under the collar, there was more to that feeling than job losses, bankruptcies, foreclosures, etc.
Turns out it actually was pretty hot out there.
According to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2009 tied for the second-warmest year on record, trailing only 2005. In the southern hemisphere, ‘09 was the warmest year since the inception of record-keeping in 1880.
The polar bear is the high-profile furry face of animals threatened by climate change. With Arctic ice melting at an increasing pace — due to global warming — its range and habitat is disappearing.
But, the polar bear is just one of many species endangered by a warming planet and other man-made threats. Beyond the tragedy of extinction of a species is the chain reaction in the environment triggered by that loss.
That complex web of life that connects people, animals, plants and places is known as biodiversity, and is the underpinning of life on Earth. To raise awareness of its importance to the planet, the United Nations has declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity.
This past year is expected to rank among the top 10 warmest on record, since record-keeping began in 1850.
The combined global sea and land surface air temperature readings for 2009 (January to October) suggest it will be about the fifth warmest year on record, making the last decade definitively warmer than the 1990s, which was warmer on average than the 1980s, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
The tentative ranking for 2009, was affected by above-normal temperatures recorded in “most parts of the continents,” the WMO reported in a release on its findings, which also detailed droughts and weather fluctuations around the globe.
As if the dire predictions about the sad state of the planet aren’t enough, we’re now being treated to gloomy forecasts about whether our leaders have the will to do anything about it.
At the Climate Summit at the United Nations in NYC observers had hoped for a breakthrough pledge or statement from either US President Barack Obama or China’s President Hu Jintao. But the event was long on rhetoric, short on serious commitment and left many advocates muttering their disappointment, mainly because the leaders of the two most polluting nations are still playing chess.
Not convinced that climate change matters? The Union of Concerned Scientists has concluded that if Americans adopt that stance, they’ll be gambling not just with their lungs, but with their pocketbooks.
It found that rising sea levels, intense hurricanes, flooding, impaired public health and strained energy and water resources would all add up to one monumental price tag.
Once, long ago, a winemaker promised to sell no wine before its time. Now, a different company is promising to sell no wine (at least one label of wine anyway) without helping humans atone for past crimes.
The rhyme may not be as good, but the thought is more altruistic.
Barbara Ettinger and Sven Huseby knew their documentary about ocean acidification would have to pass a high test to avoid overwhelming a public already challenged to understand many technical facets of climate change.
To sound the alarm about yet another looming global warming catastrophe, the potential destruction of all marine life, their film would have to be engaging, accessible, down-to-earth.
Happily, A Sea Change: Imagine a World Without Fish succeeds on all those levels. Humanizing this critical issue like no previous film or book, it follows the soft-spoken Huseby on an odyssey of discovery as he meets with scientists and activists in Alaska, Seattle, California and Norway trying to understand the phenomenon of ocean acidification.
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