ApocaDocuments (9) for the "Climate Chaos" scenario from this week
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Sun, Aug 22, 2010
from National Center for Atmospheric Research:
A storm so fierce, a new term is coined
A windstorm that swept across Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois on May 8, 2009, was so remarkably fierce that NCAR scientists coined a new term to describe it: super derecho.
A derecho (the Spanish word for "straight") is a long-lived, straight-line windstorm that is associated with a bow echo, or line of severe thunderstorms. The word was first used in the American Meteorological Journal in 1888 by Gustavus Hinrichs, who sought to describe a derecho event in Iowa. The May 8 event, however, was no ordinary derecho. The bow echo produced an eye-like structure similar to tropical cyclones. It gained strength as it moved across Kansas in the early morning hours, spinning off 18 tornadoes and packing wind speeds from 70 to 90 miles per hour when it hit Springfield, Missouri. It plowed a path of destruction through the state about 100 miles wide, crossing the Mississippi River with 90 to 100 mph wind gusts before dissipating at Illinois' eastern border. ...
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I don't think I like the derecho this is going.
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Thu, Aug 19, 2010
from Guardian:
Rising temperatures reducing ability of plants to absorb carbon, study warns
Rising temperatures in the past decade have reduced the ability of the world's plants to soak up carbon from the atmosphere, scientists said today.
Large-scale droughts have wiped out plants that would have otherwise absorbed an amount of carbon equivalent to Britain's annual man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
Scientists measure the amount of atmospheric CO2 absorbed by plants and turned into biomass as a quantity known as the net primary production. NPP increased from 1982 to 1999 as temperatures rose and there was more solar radiation.
But the period from 2000 to 2009 reverses that trend - surprising some scientists.... Reduced plant matter not only reduces the world's natural ability to manage CO2 in the atmosphere but could also lead to problems with growing more crops to feed rising populations or make sustainable biofuels.
"Under a changing climate, severe regional droughts have become more frequent, a trend expected to continue for the foreseeable future," said the researchers. ...
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I thought you liked CO2 and heat.
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Thu, Aug 19, 2010
from London Independent:
On the frontline of climate change
Irrigated by one of the world's mightiest river systems, the Murray-Darling Basin yields nearly half of Australia's fresh produce. But the basin is ailing, and scientists fear that as climate change grips the driest inhabited continent, its main foodbowl could become a global warming ground zero.
The signs are already ominous: in the Riverland, one of the nation's major horticulture areas, dying vines and parched lemon trees attest to critical water shortages. Farmers have had their water allocations slashed during the recent crippling drought; 200 sold up, and many of those who hung on are struggling... At one school, children have reportedly been stealing packed lunches from classmates. ...
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Just so they don't build a freakin' mosque there.
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Thu, Aug 19, 2010
from Climatewire:
Pakistan -- a Sad New Benchmark in Climate-Related Disasters
Devastating flooding that has swamped one-fifth of Pakistan and left millions homeless is likely the worst natural disaster to date attributable to climate change, U.N. officials and climatologists are now openly saying. Most experts are still cautioning against tying any specific event directly to emissions of greenhouse gases. But scientists at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva say there's no doubt that higher Atlantic Ocean temperatures contributed to the disaster begun late last month.
Atmospheric anomalies that led to the floods are also directly related to the same weather phenomena that a caused the record heat wave in Russia and flooding and mudslides in western China... ...
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Better to be "sad" about climate change than terrified.
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Wed, Aug 18, 2010
from Agence France-Press:
UN fights to save our planet from deserts
Fortaleza, Brazil - The United Nations on Monday launched a campaign to save the planet from deserts that are threatening a third of the planet along with the livelihoods of more than a billion people...Parched land and deserts today are home to one in three people on Earth, or 2.1 billion people, 90 percent of whom are in developing nations. One billion people struggle to find enough food to survive in such inhospitable terrain...Climate change is seen as the main cause of the phenomenon, a view reinforced by droughts and flooding in different areas of unusual intensity. ...
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Our just desserts = just deserts.
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Tue, Aug 17, 2010
from Huffington Post:
Biggest US Coal Power Expansion In 2 Decades
Utilities across the country are building dozens of old-style coal plants that will cement the industry's standing as the largest industrial source of climate-changing gases for years to come.
An Associated Press examination of U.S. Department of Energy records and information provided by utilities and trade groups shows that more than 30 traditional coal plants have been built since 2008 or are under construction.... The expansion, the industry's largest in two decades, represents an acknowledgment that highly touted "clean coal" technology is still a long ways from becoming a reality and underscores a renewed confidence among utilities that proposals to regulate carbon emissions will fail. The Senate last month scrapped the leading bill to curb carbon emissions following opposition from Republicans and coal-state Democrats.
"Building a coal-fired power plant today is betting that we are not going to put a serious financial cost on emitting carbon dioxide," said Severin Borenstein, director of the Energy Institute at the University of California-Berkeley. "That may be true, but unless most of the scientists are way off the mark, that's pretty bad public policy." ...
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Why the hell would you want to slow down the economic recovery with burdensome carbon regulations?
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Tue, Aug 17, 2010
from Telegraph, via DesdemonaDespair:
Ice sheet in Greenland melting at record rate
The Greenland ice sheet is melting at a record rate due to global warming, according to a British-led expedition currently taking measurements from the treacherous glaciers.... The finding immediately raises fears about the long term effect on rising sea levels and ultimately 'positive feedbacks' as water absorbs more heat than ice, therefore speeding up the warming effect.... "It is not a freak event and is certainly a manifestation of warming. This year marks yet another record breaking melt year in Greenland; temperatures and melt across the entire ice sheet have exceeded those in 2007 and of historical records."... The new research comes as scientists from Pennsylvania State University warned that temperature rise of between 2C and 7C would cause the entire ice mass of Greenland to melt, resulting in 23ft rise in sea level. ...
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Maybe I can get my beachfront property by just stayin' home!
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Tue, Aug 17, 2010
from London Guardian:
Artificial meat? Food for thought by 2050
Artificial meat grown in vats may be needed if the 9 billion people expected to be alive in 2050 are to be adequately fed without destroying the earth, some of the world's leading scientists report today.
But a major academic assessment of future global food supplies, led by John Beddington, the UK government chief scientist, suggests that even with new technologies such as genetic modification and nanotechnology, hundreds of millions of people may still go hungry owing to a combination of climate change, water shortages and increasing food consumption. ...
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I'm going to start hoarding my Spam right now!
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Mon, Aug 16, 2010
from Financial Times:
Economic Outlook: Toll from wheat price to emerge
Will soaring wheat prices feed through into higher inflation? This week's data releases will provide more clarity on the extent to which the sharp rise in global agricultural markets in July has affected prices in the world's food markets - although economists warn that the full effects of higher wholesale prices may not be felt for months.
Rising inflation could put pressure on policymakers to tighten monetary policy sooner. The return of inflationary concerns comes after the price of wheat rose almost 50 per cent in July as Russia, the world's third-largest exporter, suffered its worst drought in more than a century. ...
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A little wheat-belt tightening, that's all.
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