Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1132

New York Times front-page story: In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming! - Trenberth: "It's not the right question to ask if this storm or that storm is due to global warming, or is it natural variability. Nowadays, there's always an element of bo

The floods battered New England, then Nashville, then Arkansas, then Oklahoma — and were followed by a deluge in Pakistan that has upended the lives of 20 million people.

The summer's heat waves baked the eastern United States, parts of Africa and eastern Asia, and above all Russia, which lost millions of acres of wheat and thousands of lives in a drought worse than any other in the historical record.

Seemingly disconnected, these far-flung disasters are reviving the question of whether global...

New York Times front-page story: In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming! - Trenberth: "It's not the right question to ask if this storm or that storm is due to global warming, or is it natural variability. Nowadays, there's always an element of bo

The floods battered New England, then Nashville, then Arkansas, then Oklahoma — and were followed by a deluge in Pakistan that has upended the lives of 20 million people.

The summer's heat waves baked the eastern United States, parts of Africa and eastern Asia, and above all Russia, which lost millions of acres of wheat and thousands of lives in a drought worse than any other in the historical record.

Seemingly disconnected, these far-flung disasters are reviving the question of whether global...

New York Times front-page story: In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming! - Trenberth: "It's not the right question to ask if this storm or that storm is due to global warming, or is it natural variability. Nowadays, there's always an element of bo

The floods battered New England, then Nashville, then Arkansas, then Oklahoma — and were followed by a deluge in Pakistan that has upended the lives of 20 million people.

The summer's heat waves baked the eastern United States, parts of Africa and eastern Asia, and above all Russia, which lost millions of acres of wheat and thousands of lives in a drought worse than any other in the historical record.

Seemingly disconnected, these far-flung disasters are reviving the question of whether global...

A looming oxygen crisis and its impact on our oceans

We've known for a while that we are poisoning the oceans and that human emissions of carbon dioxide, left unchecked, would likely have devastating consequences.  A 2010 study found that oceans are acidifying 10 times faster today than 55 million years ago when a mass extinction of marine species occurred.

And we've known those impacts might last a long, long time —a 2009 study concluded ocean dead zones "devoid of fish and seafood" are poised to expand and "remain for thousands of years."

The skeptics are sweating - Former Weather Channel "adamant skeptic" says "it's a case of Weather Gone Wiggy": The "nature" of extreme weather "is changing along with changing atmospheric moisture, stability, and circulation patterns."

Stu Ostro, Senior Meteorologist at the Weather Channel, has become quite good at explaining the link between global warming and extreme weather — see "Weather Channel expert on Georgia's record-smashing global-warming-type deluge":

… there's a straightforward connection in the way the changing climate "set the table" for what happened this September in Atlanta and elsewhere. It behooves us to understand not only theoretical expected increases in heavy precipitation (via relatively...

Climate experts agree: Global warming caused unprecedented Russian heat wave - Carver: "Without contributions from anthropogenic climate change, I don't think this event would have reached such extremes or even happened at all."

The World Meteorological Organization says this "unprecedented sequence of extreme weather events … matches IPCC projections of more frequent and more intense extreme weather events due to global warming."  NASA says July 2010 is "What Global Warming Looks Like."

Top climate scientists — Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring and attribution at UK's Met Office and Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research — have been making the link  between...

Climate experts agree: Global warming caused Russian heat wave - Carver: "Without contributions from anthropogenic climate change, I don't think this event would have reached such extremes or even happened at all."

The World Meteorological Organization says this "unprecedented sequence of extreme weather events … matches IPCC projections of more frequent and more intense extreme weather events due to global warming."  NASA says July 2010 is "What Global Warming Looks Like."

Top climate scientists — Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring and attribution at UK's Met Office and Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research — have been making the link  between...

Yes, global warming has continued since 1998

Physicist John Cook of Skeptical Science has a good post debunking the global cooling myth, "3 levels of cherry picking in a single argument," reprinted below.

To properly understand what's happening to our climate, you have to consider the full body of evidence. Most arguments that support climate skepticism have one thing in common — they neglect the full body of evidence and cherry pick just the select pieces of data that support a particular point of view. There is one argument that is so ...

Energy and Global Warming News for August 13th: 60% of species recovery plans identify global warming as extinction threat; Global CO2 emissions down in 2009; Scotland installing world's largest tidal turbine

Study: 60% of species recovery plans identify global warming as extinction threat

A scientific review of federal endangered species recovery plans finds that scientists are increasingly identifying global warming as an extinction threat but government agencies have yet to respond with any national strategy. The lack of recovery plan guidance from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has led to inconsistent efforts to save species that scientists say are most threatened by global warming.

The...

One-fifth of Pakistan is under water - Obama admin triples number of helicopters sent for flood relief

Think Progress updates the Pakistan/climate/security story.

Denizens of Washington DC are reeling from a catastrophic storm that knocked out power for 100,000, toppled trees, and flooded streets. Much of the Gulf Coast is under flood warnings, and the central United States is sweltering under 110-degree heat, following an early summer of record heat and rainfall across much of the United States. Severe weather fueled by global warming pollution is having an even more devastating impact...