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Archive for category Enviroment

NASA Satellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt

Jul 27

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Enviroment | Comments off

NASA Earth July 24, 2012

Extent of surface melt over Greenland’s ice sheet on July 8 (left) and July 12 (left). Measurements from three satellites showed that on July 8, about 40 percent of the ice sheet had undergone thawing at or near the surface. In just a few days, the melting had dramatically accelerated and an estimated 97 percent of the ice sheet surface had thawed by July 12. In the image, the areas classified as “probable melt” (light pink) correspond to those sites where at least one satellite detected surface melting. The areas classified as “melt” (dark pink) correspond to sites where two or three satellites detected surface melting. The satellites are measuring different physical properties at different scales and are passing over Greenland at different times. As a whole, they provide a picture of an extreme melt event about which scientists are very confident. Credit: Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC, and Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory
› Hi-res of left image
› Hi-res of right image

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James Hansen – Public Perception of Climate Change and the New Climate Dice

Apr 7

Posted by Michael Collins in Enviroment | Comments off

(Submitted on 5 Apr 2012)

“Climate dice”, describing the chance of unusually warm or cool seasons relative to climatology, have become progressively “loaded” in the past 30 years, coincident with rapid global warming. The distribution of seasonal mean temperature anomalies has shifted toward higher temperatures and the range of anomalies has increased. An important change is the emergence of a category of summertime extremely hot outliers, more than three standard deviations (3{\sigma}) warmer than climatology. This hot extreme, which covered much less than 1% of Earth’s surface in the period of climatology, now typically covers about 10% of the land area. It follows that we can state, with a high degree of confidence, that extreme anomalies such as those in Texas and Oklahoma in 2011 and Moscow in 2010 were a consequence of global warming, because their likelihood in the absence of global warming was exceedingly small. We discuss practical implications of this substantial, growing, climate change.

Full Paper pdf

Comments: 19 pages, 12 figures; submitted to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Subjects:Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:1204.1286v1 [physics.ao-ph]

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Look who is donating to climate change deniers!

Feb 17

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Climate Change, Corruption, Enviroment | Comments off

By Michael Collins

The nation’s largest software company, the two largest cable companies, and four leading pharmaceutical companies are among companies donating $10,000 or more to a climate change denier association. DESMOGBLOG.COM received the fundraising plan and other documents from the Heartland Institute, a climate denier foundation. The institute’s documents were published on DESMOGBLOG’s web site with analysis since Tuesday.
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James E Hansen: Cowards in Our Democracies Part 2

Feb 4

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Climate Change, Corruption, Enviroment | Comments off

By James E. Hansen
(Original article)

(New York, 28 January 2012) Scientists are finding it difficult to persuade the public of the urgency to reduce fossil fuel CO2 emissions. This is in part because people profiting from fossil fuel business-as-usual support disinformation about the science, so that they can expand extraction of fossil fuels despite the evidence that such expansion will push the climate system beyond tipping points, assuring further climate change with impacts that are practically out of humanity’s control. (Image)

Scientists attempt to communicate, but are flummoxed by the ability of the profiteers to manipulate democracies. The scientific method (objective analysis of all facts) is pitted against the talk-show method (selective citation of anecdotal bits supporting a predetermined position).

The tragedy is that a common sense pathway exists that would solve our energy needs, stimulate our economy and protect the future of young people. Yet people benefiting from business-as-usual are able to block adoption of policies in the public’s interest, via the corrosive influence of money in politics and aided by corporate-dominated media.

Should scientists connect the dots all the way to policy implications? Profiteers strongly oppose that, because scientists are trained to be objective, and profiteers want no interference with their functioning profit pathways. Let’s consider that issue after summarizing the situation. Read the rest of this entry »

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Perceptions of Climate Change: The New Climate Dice – New from James Hansen

Jan 6

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Climate Change, Enviroment | Comments off

James Hansen, preeminent climatologist, and his distinguished colleagues have just released their latest paper submitted for publication. It will be published but through the prerelease, we are all able to get the latest findings real time. It shows more support and greater elaboration on the damaging effects of climate change.  The summary and introduction follow with a link to the full article here and at the end of the summary. Michael Collins  

Perceptions of Climate Change: The New Climate Dice

By James Hansen (a1), Makiko Sato (a), Reto Ruedyb (b)

(a) NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University Earth Institute, (b) Sigma Space Partners, New York, NY 10025

“Climate dice”, describing the chance of unusually warm or cool seasons relative to climatology, have become progressively “loaded” in the past 30 years, coincident with rapid global warming. The distribution of seasonal mean temperature anomalies has shifted toward higher temperatures and the range of anomalies has increased. An important change is the emergence of a category of summertime extremely hot outliers, more than three standard deviations (σ) warmer than climatology. This hot extreme, which covered much less than 1% of Earth’s surface in the period of climatology, now typically covers about 10% of the land area. We conclude that extreme heat waves, such as that in Texas and Oklahoma in 2011 and Moscow in 2010, were “caused” by global warming, because their likelihood was negligible prior to the recent rapid global warming. We discuss practical implications of this substantial, growing climate change

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Oops! We’re Doomed

Dec 15

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Corruption, Enviroment, Environment | Comments off

By Michael Collins

We don’t have a substantial cushion between today’s climate and dangerous warming. James E. Hanson

The head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, James E. Hansen, announced the results of break through global warming research last week. The earth’s temperature is rising at a much quicker pace than previously anticipated according to research by the nation’s preeminent climate scientist. We have little time to reverse the trend. (Image)

An example of the dangerous pace of change is emerging on Russia’s Eastern Siberian Arctic Shelf. Long-frozen permafrost is beginning to melt due to global warming. This threat was identified years ago due to the potential for highly toxic releases of heat-trapping methane gas.  Recent changes are both a surprise and a cause for alarm. There is more methane gas released from the Russian cauldron “than the CH4 emissions estimate for the entire world ocean.” Methane is a “far more potent GHG [greenhouse gas] than CO2″ with a greater potential to cause “abrupt climate change.”

At the same time, researchers at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science in Zurich developed a more efficient analysis of contributors to global warming. They found man-made causes can now be linked with at least 75% of global warming.
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