The atmosphere is to the earth as a layer of varnish is to a desktop globe. It is thin, fragile and essential for preserving the items on the surface.150 years of burning fossil fuel have overloaded the atmosphere to the point where the earth is ill. It now has a fever. Read the detailed article, Soothing Gaia’s Fever for an evocative account of that analogy. The items listed here detail progress on coordinating 6.5 billion people in the most critical project undertaken by humanity.Â
Ice sheet retreat controlled by the landscape Posted: 16 Oct 2012 02:31 PM PDT Ice-sheet retreat can halt temporarily during long phases of climate warming, according to scientists. Long-term observations in the tropics linked to global climate change Posted: 16 Oct 2012 02:30 PM PDT Reports of declining ice coverage and drowning polar bears in Continue Reading →
Methane hydrates: a volatile time bomb in the ArcticThe ConversationThe risk with climate change is not with the direct effect of humans on the greenhouse capacity of Earth’s atmosphere. The major risk is that the relatively modest human perturbation will unleash much greater forces. The likelihood of this risk is …See all stories on this Continue Reading →
Empty Promise Posted: 15 Oct 2012 12:32 PM PDT Could scientists have got the impacts of climate change on food supply wildly wrong? By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 16th October 2012 I believe we might have made a mistake: a mistake whose consequences, if I am right, would be hard to overstate. Continue Reading →
Climate change: Circulation of Atlantic Ocean was faster during last Ice Age than today Posted: 15 Oct 2012 09:19 AM PDT Heat transport in the Atlantic Ocean during the last Ice Age was not weaker, as long assumed, but in fact stronger than it is today. Scientists used ultra-precise measurements of natural radionuclides in ocean Continue Reading →
Fracking’s Dark Side Gets Darker: The Problem of Methane WasteNatural Resources Defense Council (blog)Natural gas is mostly methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Pound for pound, methane is at least 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, over a 100-year period, and as much as 100 times more powerful over a 20-year period. Releasing increasing …See Continue Reading →
Climate scientist loses faith in the IPCChttp://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-scientist-loses-faith-in-the-ipcc-20121011-27fk8.htmlBen Cubby, The Age, October 12, 2012As the world’s elite global warming experts begin poring over thedrafts of the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reportthis week, one leading scientist doesn’t believe the process should behappening at all.