/ Global Warming

• Arctic Ice Melting Rapidly - Yet Global Warming is Slowing

  The numbers are in for this year’s summer sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean. By most measures the ice loss in 2011 came in a close second to the current and still record holder, 2007. But the failure to set a new record for the least amount of summer Arctic sea ice observed during the satellite era (which begins in 1979) has done little to alter the overall picture of what is going on there. Summer sea ice has been in decline in the Arctic Ocean since, conservatively, the mid-20th century, and it has been picking up steam. And…

• Carbon Dioxide May Destroy All Coral Reefs by the End of the Century

  A new book out this week by United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health leader Peter Sale predicts that coral reefs will be wiped off the face of the earth by the end of the century. Sheril Kirshenbaum, author and reserach associate at the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy, explains why in this climate progress cross-post. Marine chemist Richard Feely, a senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, has been collecting water samples in the North Pacific for over 30 years. He’s observed a decrease in pH at the upper part of the water…

• Switching to Renewable Energy Could SPEED UP Global Warming

  Study: Coal-Fired Power Plants Emit Pollutants That Keep the Earth CoolLast week a new study reported that replacing coal with natural gas might actually worsen climate change in the short term. The study was done by Tom Wigley, who is a senior research associate at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The title of the study is Coal to gas: The influence of methane leakage and will be published in next month’s Climatic Change Letters. What the study projects is that the amount of methane leaking from gas wells will influence the future temperature rise from climate change: The…

• Battling Climate Change by Restoring Land Contaminated by Chernobyl

  An NGO is developing an emissions reduction project in Belarus that will restore peatland contaminated by fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident. APB Birdlife Belarus is tapping the carbon markets to find at least €2.6 million ($3.6 million) for a project that will re-wet peatland that was drained as part of a Soviet-era programme to boost agricultural production. The 10,000-hectare tract of land in the south-east of the country borders the Ukraine and is near the site of the nuclear reactor which exploded in 1986, scattering radioactive material. The NGO says re-wetting the peatland will restore habitats for fauna and…

• Sea Levels are Not Rapidly Rising - Nature Disagrees with IPCC

  “The short-term rate of global sea level rise has decreased by about 25% since the release of the AR4—and a new paper shows that some 15% of the observed rise comes not from global warming, but instead from global dewatering…. [R]ather than raising its projections of sea level rise, perhaps the IPCC ought to consider lowering them once again.” The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is under pressure to revisit its projections of the expected amount of sea level rise by the year 2100. Many rather influential types are pushing for the IPCC to dramatically increase its central estimate…

• Climate Change Policy and Data Manipulation

  The whole issue of climate change and government policy in response to global warming remains an issue of immense importance to the metals industry. As major consumers of energy and significant emitters of CO2 (and other so called greenhouse gasses) metals manufacturers serve as both part of the problem and part of the solution. Of course not everyone shares the view that global warming has come as a result of anything man (or industry) has done. Bob Lutz, legendary automotive executive and often outspoken critic of the climate change lobby once famously described the whole concept as a “crock of…

• Emissions Targets in Doubt as CO2 Levels Reach Highest in History

  The International Energy Agency reported that global carbon dioxide emissions reached its highest record in history last year, casting doubts whether various governments can meet the target emission level set. The I.E.A. noted that the emissions rate soared to five percent marked of 30.6 gigatons, surpassing the previous carbon dioxide emissions record in 2008 which was at 29.3 gigatons. The group also highlighted that 44 percent of the estimated carbon dioxide emissions in 2010 came from coal, 36 percent from oil, and 20 percent from natural gas. The agency expressed its doubt on the efforts to keep the earth’s temperature…

• The Mirage of Western Countries Lowered Greenhouse Gas Emissions

  In many developed nations, increased energy efficiency has effectively lowered emissions of carbon dioxide. However, the cuts in advanced economies are merely an illusion, as manufacturing and dirty industries have moved offshore to the developing world such as China and India. These countries produce goods cheaply which Western consumers like. But that cheap price is a reflection of not only lower wages for workers, but also lax pollution controls and environmental standards. Developed countries have been reducing their carbon emissions for some years now, some in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is a non-binding international agreement to…

• Food Yields and Climate Change

  Even in rich countries, the shadow of food insecurity has returned, threatening to bring to an end a golden era of plenty. It had been quite a success story, with agricultural activity focused almost exclusively on ensuring the provision of cheap and abundant supplies of food and fibre. Only in the last ten years or so have the full environmental costs of this cornucopian plenty been brought to light. For countries with spending power, the reassuring sight of supermarkets brimming with cheap, fresh produce from around the world, irrespective of season, has obscured the realities that lie behind that facade.…

• Inaction on climate change is risky business

  Like a family that has no homeowner’s insurance, no fire detectors, a gas leak in the basement and a bad case of denial, the global community remains unprepared for irreversible and potentially catastrophic changes to the Earth’ climate. What’s needed – quickly – is an international risk management effort, a process that’s more familiar in military and national security circles than it is in environmental and scientific circles. That process is described in “Degrees of Risk: Defining a Risk Management Framework for Climate Security” — a report just released by the London-based think tank Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G). The report’s…