My wife and I just got back from a few blissfully disconnected days in the Finger Lakes, which means I’ll be hacking through new feeds for the rest of today and a goodly size chunk of tomorrow. Good thing we brought home some delightful bottles from various Cayuga Lake wineries — I’ll need the sustenance…
So, without further ado or commentary on my part, some news feeds that I think are worthy of your attention:
- Must Read: Turn the Tables on Monckton
- Facebook | Prawngate: Support John Abraham against Monckton’s bullying
- How Half the World Could Grow Thirsty At China’s Whim
- Big Oil Front Group Says CO2 Is Green (Warning: This one will make your blood boil.)
- Lake Champlain affected by climate change, report says You cab get the report here [PDF]
- New Study Charts Effects of Each Degree of Warming:
The human impacts on climate come into sharper focus in a new National Research Council report that warns policymakers that carbon dioxide lives so long in the atmosphere “it can effectively lock the Earth and future generations into a range of impacts, some of which could become very severe.”
The range of impacts — temperatures, crop yields, precipitation, streamflow, wildfires — have long been part of the global warming scenario, but the new analysis by leading climate scientists brings new consistency and clarity to model simulations by focusing on changes to expect from each additional degree of future temperature rise.
…
Specific impacts of the various climate models wander over a wide range of uncertainty when simulations are based on different levels of carbon dioxide concentration, different time periods, or different emissions scenarios, Solomon noted.
But their results are “considerably more robust” and consistent when climate impacts are viewed “as a function of the warming level.”
Beyond the specific impacts, the 242-page report describes carbon dioxide as the dominant and most unique greenhouse gas. Once released, it remains in the atmosphere for centuries, even thousands of years, and commits generations in the distant future to many years of a warming climate.
“Every pound that every one of us emits, every ton that we emit as a group, will be with us for a long time,” she said. “Some of what we will be releasing now will be with us for generations.”
…
Taking this lag time into account, Solomon said that the changes described in the report are only “about half of the eventual impacts” for a given unit of heightened carbon dioxide concentration.
With CO2 concentrations at current levels of 390 parts per million, the report shows that the climate system already is committed to at least 1 degree C (1.8 F) of warming.
This is the part where I chime in a remind you all for the 10,000th time that “timing is everything” in climate change (as well as in peak oil), and that the enormous amount of CO2 we’ve built up in the atmosphere is the main reason I think we should be feeling a much greater sense of urgency.
The report is a free prepublication download from The National Academies Press.
See also Locking in our future
- Global temperatures rise to record levels
