Global Warming

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If this thread is not appropriate for this forum please move. I just thought it would be good to have a place for GW links, information and discussion that will be permanent.

10 Signs Global Warming is Happening Now

http://www.wunderground.com/news/10-signs-global-warming-happening-now-20130618?pageno=1

Melting ice in the Arctic Ocean and on Mount Everest. Rising sea levels among the Caribbean islands, while the number of hot days and heat waves continues rising year after year.

None of these are forecasts about what might happen in a far-off, distant future. They're happening now, today, a sign of the present-day impacts of climate change happening already across a warming planet.

What follows are ten of the most significant environmental impacts from climate change that scientists have observed in recent years, starting with America's first climate refugees..........
 
If this thread is not appropriate for this forum please move. I just thought it would be good to have a place for GW links, information and discussion that will be permanent.

10 Signs Global Warming is Happening Now

http://www.wunderground.com/news/10-signs-global-warming-happening-now-20130618?pageno=1

Melting ice in the Arctic Ocean and on Mount Everest. Rising sea levels among the Caribbean islands, while the number of hot days and heat waves continues rising year after year.

None of these are forecasts about what might happen in a far-off, distant future. They're happening now, today, a sign of the present-day impacts of climate change happening already across a warming planet.

What follows are ten of the most significant environmental impacts from climate change that scientists have observed in recent years, starting with America's first climate refugees..........

I hope it can stay here as long as we leave politics out of it...I'll try to behave. :blushing:

Read where dead bodies on Mount Everest are compromising the water supply for the Sherpas as the bodies melt and decompose. At least 200 dead bodies up on the mountain. Plus the pollution from old ropes (which confuse climbers mistaking them for the new ones), old oxygen bottles, food containers, plastics etc. Efforts are made for the Sherpas to make their income from collecting trash and dead bodies. But the short season to do this interferes with the climbers.

IMO climate is constantly changing from warmer to colder. Europe had a little ice age not that long ago in our history. However I do believe with the amount of people on this earth we do have the power to tip the change a lot faster. Way too many glaciers totally disappearing in our parks in the USA. Alaska has a problem with the permafrost disappearing in some areas and homes and buildings built on them are sinking and collapsing.

I think this is an awesome subject to discuss Reader and I will try to keep it neutral and just present facts.
 
Respectfully snipped BM:

I hope it can stay here as long as we leave politics out of it...I'll try to behave. :blushing:

I think this is an awesome subject to discuss Reader and I will try to keep it neutral and just present facts.

Deal, Show Me! I'm not putting this here to discuss the politics but to provide the scientific information, from various viewpoints.

This is interesting:

World's Largest Solar Boat Tracks Impact of Climate Change

http://www.wunderground.com/news/worlds-largest-solar-boat-arrives-nyc-photos-20130620

Boats have relied on the wind to travel around the world for hundreds of years, but last year was the first time that a vessel powered only by the sun completed the full circumnavigation. And now the MS Turanor PlanetSolar is on another mission: measure how climate change is affecting the Gulf Stream.

The expedition team on the 102-foot boat, comprised of scientists from the University of Geneva, will be collecting phytoplankton samples from the ocean and aerosols from the air to understand how the Gulf Stream -- an ocean current in the Atlantic that moves water from the tropics to the Arctic -- is responding to climate change, according to The Guardian. Because the boat is powered by 5,554 square feet of solar panels, the scientists won't have to worry about any polluting substances that could distort the data........

More at link.....
 
Glaciers disappearing photos. Shocking photos of the Matterhorn (1960 to 2010.) This was put on internet in January of 2010....I'm a little scared to find any glacier photos disappearing in 2013.


http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/blogs/top-7-disappearing-glaciers#

Many often wonder why Europeans get so hot and bothered about climate change. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that they are in direct, daily contact with one very sobering reality — their ice is vanishing.

European glaciers have been some of the hardest hit by climate change. Since the first half of the 19th century, about two-thirds of the ice cover was lost in the Pyrenees with a marked acceleration after 1980 (Chueca et al. 2005 via: UNEP) and in the Alps, home to the world famous Matterhorn, nearly half the glaciers have disappeared since record keeping began.

Often called the "water tower" of Europe, the Alps contain 40 percent of Europe's fresh water supply. The dramatic disappearance of ice on the Matterhorn last year has prompted the need for the border between Switzerland and Italy to be redrawn.
 
Alaska had a heatwave - I'd heard something along the lines of 90* is Anchorage, which is incredibly unusual...and will cause flooding as the local permafrost and ice melts off.

Change is happening. Weather patterns are changing. I have begun to wonder about hurricanes hitting us here in Southern California - I suspect it could happen now far more readily than before, as our waters warm up.

Interesting times indeed.

Best-
Herding Cats
 
Alaska had a heatwave - I'd heard something along the lines of 90* is Anchorage, which is incredibly unusual...and will cause flooding as the local permafrost and ice melts off.

Change is happening. Weather patterns are changing. I have begun to wonder about hurricanes hitting us here in Southern California - I suspect it could happen now far more readily than before, as our waters warm up.

Interesting times indeed.

Best-
Herding Cats

Thanks, HC! I posted an article about the AK heat wave in their 'state' thread before starting this thread. Scary that they are losing homes due to the melting ice and having 90 degree temps when it is usually in the 60s this time of year.

Here is another article showing the fires in the west are also affected by climate change:

Experts: Expect bigger, fiercer wildfires in West

http://www.centurylink.net/news/rea...ap-experts_expect_bigger_fiercer_wildfires-ap

LOS ANGELES (AP) — There's a dangerous but basic equation behind the killer Yarnell Hill wildfire and other blazes raging across the West this summer: More heat, more drought, more fuel and more people in the way are adding up to increasingly ferocious fires.

Scientists say a hotter planet will only increase the risk.........

While no single wildfire can be pinned solely on climate change, researchers say there are signs that fires are becoming bigger and more common in an increasingly hot and bone-dry West.
 
Yes, agreed. There will be some serious fires this year; shoot, we've already had one big one, and lots of little ones...and we weren't in "fire season" yet.

The interesting thing about those fires was that we were having a Santa Ana wind event at the same time...no, that's usual - Santa Ana wind and fire - but the timing of it was bizarre; we generally only get Santa Ana's during late summer and fall...this one happened in spring.

The wind was one of the main culprits of the fire...as it usually is. The fact that it happened at an unusual time is what gets me.

Fires will be horrible this year - not just here in CA., but everywhere.

Something's changing...I have my ideas, and it's not simply climate change. I believe that the large earthquakes that we've experienced in the last few years - from, say, 2004 on - have somehow contributed to whatever else is going on. There have been many reports as to these quakes affecting the axis of the earth and the spin time ("days are getting shorter by Xmillionth of a second" or whatever the headline reads) is changing...those things, while "miniscule" in a quantifiable context, may be contributing to weather patterns, which are inarguably changing.

I picture it something like this: a spinning marble suspended in a balloon. The balloon is the atmosphere, and the marble is spinning in the center of it, and is the earth. The weather is something which "lays" on top of the first bit of atmosphere - that closest to the earth. And it doesn't really change much...it's the same thing, day after day, year after year. But if the marble inside tilts just the wee-est bit, then the spots on the marble that used to have X will be in a different position, and now may not have X, but experience Y.

Does that make sense? I can see it clearly in my head, but LOLing at me trying to get the picture out in words.

I think that's at least part of what's happening - that eq's have changed the earth's axis, and we are now experiencing different patterns because of that (of course that's not the whole thing, or even a large part of it...just a bit of the puzzle).

Best-
Herding Cats
 
Thanks, Herding Cats! I saved part of your post and will try to do some research about that. In the meantime, here's this:

Report: Climate change causing energy disruptions

http://news.yahoo.com/report-climate-change-causing-energy-disruptions-145343432.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — Climate change and extreme weather already are causing disruptions in the U.S. energy supply that are likely to worsen as more intense storms, higher temperatures and more frequent droughts occur, the government says in a new report.

The report, released Thursday by the Energy Department, says blackouts and other problems caused by Superstorm Sandy and other extreme weather events are likely to be repeated across the country as an aging energy infrastructure struggles to adapt to rising seas, higher storm surges and increased flooding. A range of energy sources are at risk, from coal-fired power plants to oil wells, hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants........

While the risks from drought, floods and hurricanes are clear, water plays an important role in less obvious ways as well, Pershing said. Both coal-fired and nuclear power plants, for instance, need large volumes of water for cooling. As temperatures rise, that becomes more difficult.

The report cites several examples from 2012, the hottest year in the United States since record-keeping began in 1895:

— In August, a nuclear power station in Connecticut shut down one reactor because the temperature of the intake cooling water, withdrawn from Long Island Sound, was too high. The two-week shutdown resulted in the loss of 255,000 megawatt-hours of power, worth several million dollars, the report said.

—In the Midwest, drought and low river water depths disrupted the transportation of commodities, such as petroleum and coal, delivered by barges along the Mississippi River.

More at link.....
 
Here's a weird, interesting bit of news...there's a reverse weather pattern setting up for the south.

http://www.wunderground.com/news/weather-pattern-reverse-20130712

Look at the animation...this is very, very weird and unusual. The article says it's not unheard of, so the mechanism is there for this to happen, but it is apparently pretty rare...and it's just weird and unsettling.

Reader, yes please research my idea and let me know your thoughts...I'm no geologist or weather-ologist...but I honestly think that the massive movement of tectonic plates and resultant changing of the earth's axis *has* to play a part...at least in a small way.

Best-
Herding Cats
 
I'm working on it, HC...so far what I've found seems to say that changes in the earth's axis do affect seasonal weather changes, but found nothing on if/how there are long range effects on GW...not through yet....In the meantime:

Study forecasts deadly consequences of global warming in New York
VIDEO

http://news.msn.com/videos?videoid=8f3ec9c5-aaaa-4cc3-8c1c-c56e205b104f&ap=True

Higher temperatures caused by climate change could cause a spike in heat-related deaths in New York City, according to researchers at Columbia University. They say that if current trends continue, the number of fatalities attribituble to hot weather could double over the next seventy years. Sharon Reich reports.
 
Just a link I found through one of those rabbit-hole trails on YouTube...

http://climate.nasa.gov/state_of_flux#Bahr_al_Milh_930x349.jpg

Since it's Nasa, I thought it was reliable enough. LOL.

Yes, Reader, I am so glad you actually 'understood' my (very poor) explanation of what I see in my head. And I'm glad I'm not the first to think of it - at least people with some sort of backing are looking into this. I think there is a lot more that is connected like this - tenuous, precariously balanced strings - that if we were able to see them all, we'd understand a lot more than we do right now.

This idea is just one of those strings...

Best-
Herding Cats
 
WOW, Herding Cats, that's quite a change in that lake!

Here's a few of the links I found about the effects of changes in the earth's axis:

Japan Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days, Moved Axis

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/japanquake/earth20110314.html

The March 11, magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan may have shortened the length of each Earth day and shifted its axis. But don't worry—you won't notice the difference.

Using a United States Geological Survey estimate for how the fault responsible for the earthquake slipped, research scientist Richard Gross of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., applied a complex model to perform a preliminary theoretical calculation of how the Japan earthquake—the fifth largest since 1900—affected Earth's rotation. His calculations indicate that by changing the distribution of Earth's mass, the Japanese earthquake should have caused Earth to rotate a bit faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).

The calculations also show the Japan quake should have shifted the position of Earth's figure axis (the axis about which Earth's mass is balanced) by about 17 centimeters (6.5 inches), towards 133 degrees east longitude. Earth's figure axis should not be confused with its north-south axis; they are offset by about 10 meters (about 33 feet). This shift in Earth's figure axis will cause Earth to wobble a bit differently as it rotates, but it will not cause a shift of Earth's axis in space—only external forces such as the gravitational attraction of the sun, moon and planets can do that......

Astronomical Theory of Climate Change

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/milankovitch.html

Changes in the "tilt" of the earth can change the severity of the seasons - more "tilt" means more severe seasons - warmer summers and colder winters; less "tilt" means less severe seasons - cooler summers and milder winters. The earth wobbles in space so that its tilt changes between about 22 and 25 degrees on a cycle of about 41,000 years. It is the cool summers which are thought to allow snow and ice to last from year to year in high latitudes, eventually building up into massive ice sheets. There are positive feedbacks in the climate system as well, because an earth covered with more snow reflects more of the sun's energy into space, causing additional cooling. In addition, it appears that the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere falls as ice sheets grow, also adding to the cooling of the climate. .......

What is The Milankovitch Theory? The Milankovitch or astronomical theory of climate change is an explanation for changes in the seasons which result from changes in the earth's orbit around the sun. ........

What does The Milankovitch Theory say about future climate change?
Orbital changes occur over thousands of years, and the climate system may also take thousands of years to respond to orbital forcing. Theory suggests that the primary driver of ice ages is the total summer radiation received in northern latitude zones where major ice sheets have formed in the past, near 65 degrees north. Past ice ages correlate well to 65N summer insolation (Imbrie 1982). Astronomical calculations show that 65N summer insolation should increase gradually over the next 25,000 years, and that no 65N summer insolation declines sufficient to cause an ice age are expected in the next 50,000 - 100,000 years ( Hollan 2000, Berger 2002).

Global Climate Change: Effect of the Earth's Orbit

http://www.dnr.mo.gov/energy/cc/cc7.htm

Variations in the earth's orbit and inclination toward the sun cause cyclical variations in solar energy received by the earth and on the spatial distribution of solar energy on the earth's surface. The variations are believed to be the cause of historic climatic changes as well as those larger pre-historic climatic changes which are recorded in the geologic record. The predominant climatic effects of orbital variations are changes in seasonality.......

The amount of solar energy received by the earth is greatest when the earth is nearest the sun. This phenomenon is called the eccentricity of the orbit and has a 100,000 year cycle. This factor, combined with the tilt of the earth's axis, is believed to cause seasonal climate changes which are out of phase in each hemisphere. For instance, northern hemisphere winters are currently milder and summers cooler than normal. The opposite situation, colder winters and hotter summers, is now occurring in the southern hemisphere.......more....

Causes of Climate Change

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/causes.html

........Scientists have pieced together a picture of Earth’s climate, dating back hundreds of thousands of years, by analyzing a number of indirect measures of climate such as ice cores, tree rings, glacier lengths, pollen remains, and ocean sediments, and by studying changes in Earth’s orbit around the sun. [1]

The historical record shows that the climate system varies naturally over a wide range of time scales. In general, climate changes prior to the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s can be explained by natural causes, such as changes in solar energy, volcanic eruptions, and natural changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations. [1]

Recent climate changes, however, cannot be explained by natural causes alone. Research indicates that natural causes are very unlikely to explain most observed warming, especially warming since the mid-20th century. Rather, human activities can very likely explain most of that warming.
[1] .........more at link....
 
Fragile Reefs, Dunes Protect Millions on U.S. Coasts

http://www.wunderground.com/news/reefs-dunes-wetlands-shield-coasts-climate-change-20130716

All along the U.S. coastline, millions of people and billions of dollars' worth of real estate rely on nature's defenses -- like coral reefs, coastal forests and beach dunes -- for protection against the impacts of extreme weather and rising seas.

Neglecting these natural defenses could double the number of people at risk in "high hazard" coastal areas, including hundreds of thousands of the poor and elderly, according to a study released this week in the journal Nature Climate Change.

"The natural environment plays a key role in protecting our nation's coasts," said Dr. Katie Arkema, the study's lead author and a Stanford University marine ecologist who works with the Natural Capital Project.

"If we lose these defenses, we will either have to have massive investment in engineered defenses or risk greater damage to millions of people and billions in property.".........

"We wanted to figure out where it is most important to make sure that loss and degradation doesn't happen," Dr. Arkema told weather.com, adding that the East Coast and Gulf Coast were most vulnerable -- particularly Florida, New York and California. "These are the places where a lot of people and property have the potential to benefit from natural defense mechanisms."

The study arrives at a time when the U.S. government and many major world cities -- like New York City, London and Chicago -- are looking anew at their plans for dealing with climate change, from protecting their populations against rising sea levels and storm surge to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

As many cities and countries review these plans, it's becoming clear that natural defenses play a critical role because seawalls and other man-made structures designed to keep out the sea only work up to a point...........more at link.......

Coastal Hazard Index:

http://www.naturalcapitalproject.org/CoastalHazard_WebPortal.html
 
Thanks, Reader. I will have to take some time and read through those thoroughly. Still, I think that perhaps the change in the axis is a bit more impactful than a quick read would suggest they believe.

If the axis changes, even slightly, the equatorial bulge must move to remain the equatorial bulge. The physics of it insist that it be so. And the cumulative axis changes from the recent *very* large quakes (Sumatra, Chile, Japan, and Indonesian quakes are the first that come to mind...), combined with an equatorial bulge shift (again, as physics insist must happen) may change the weather patterns at least slightly.

I've been doing a lot of listening/reading about things like pole shift, CMEs, volcanism, and earthquakes - not to mention things like sinkholes, strange weather patterns, slowing jet stream, and so on. There are so many different theories about what's going on it's literally mindblowing, LOL, and a lot of science for this poor brain to absorb.

But it's totally interesting...I'll keep reading for sure. There is a lot of talk about a Mini Ice Age, similar to the Maunder Minimum, coming (or here, according to some folk); that would be interesting indeed.

In other news, we have a huge fire going on to the east of us - Idyllwild is on fire. Huge, horrible, and uncontained at the moment. Add to that it appears that Colorado had SNOW overnight...

Yes, friends and relatives, something weird is going on. What? I dunno...but something weird.

BTW, I really enjoy "Suspicius0bservers" channel on Youtube - he does the 3MinNews (or 4, or 5...whatever it is) daily, and talks a lot about the different things going on, and how they're possibly connected.

Here's today's link: [video=youtube;sTQ0du9dKt0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTQ0du9dKt0&feature=c4-overview&list=UUTiL1q9YbrVam5nP2xzFTWQ[/video]

He's no doom-gloomer, which is refreshing...and while there is a lot of science to learn to understand everything he's saying, it's still fairly easy to understand with some basic knowledge behind you. I do enjoy his stuff.

Best-
Herding Cats
 
Beneath the Arctic, a Sleeping Climate Giant Stirs

http://www.wunderground.com/news/sleeping-climate-giant-stirring-arctic-20130701

Rapidly rising temperatures already have had an "amazing and potentially troubling" impact in the Arctic, a group of scientists reported in June after a year-long mission to study how global warming is changing the vast ice- and permafrost-covered region that surrounds the North Pole.

The NASA-sponsored mission, called CARVE -- an acronym for "Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment" -- uses a specially-outfitted plane that flies low and slow above the pristine wilderness of Alaska's North Slope and the Yukon River Valley, allowing it to measure the interaction of greenhouse gases between Earth's surface and the atmosphere..........


<modsnip>
More at link.....
 
North pole is now a lake!

Slide the right side of the photo to the left to see before and after pictures of the North pole. From the article:

July is usually the warmest month in the area, but temperatures were 1 to 3 degrees Celsius above average this year. The shallow lake you see at the pole is made of meltwater sitting on top of a layer of ice, according to the observatory.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/...-leaves_n_3652373.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
 
Thanks Ellie Mae for the link. Makes me very angry when the media creates FAKE news.

http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/ap...h-pole-photo-in-global-warming-article-20582/

In its retraction, the AP admitted that not only was the “lake” simply a small melt-pond but that it was natural, not due to global warming. The AP also admitted that the “lake” wasn’t even at the North Pole, explaining that the monitoring station where the photo was taken had drifted hundreds of miles to the south.
 
Climate study predicts a watery future for New York, Boston and Miami

Study shows that 1,700 places in the United States are at greater risk of rising sea levels than previously thought
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/jul/29/climate-new-york-boston-miami-sea-level


White House warned on imminent Arctic ice death spiral

http://www.theguardian.com/environm...ic-ice-death-spiral?google_editors_picks=true
........Senior scientists advising the US government at the meeting include 10 Arctic specialists, including marine scientist Prof Carlos Duarte, director of the Oceans Institute at the University of Western Australia.

In early April, Duarte warned that the Arctic summer sea ice was melting at a rate faster than predicted by conventional climate models, and could be ice free as early as 2015 - rather than toward the end of the century, as the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected in 2007. .........

Extreme weather events over the last few years apparently driven by the accelerating Arctic melt process - including unprecedented heatwaves and droughts in the US and Russia, along with snowstorms and cold weather in northern Europe – have undermined harvests, dramatically impacting global food production and contributing to civil unrest.

US national security officials have taken an increasing interest in the destabilising impact of climate change..........


Fire Risk May Rise Dramatically as Climate Warms: NASA

http://www.wunderground.com/news/fire-risk-may-rise-dramatically-climate-warms-nasa-20130813
Warming temperatures across the world are likely to do more than just make tornadoes stronger and hurricanes more powerful. They could also make wildfires bigger, more ferocious and more common, especially across the West, according to a new NASA report..........

The observations NASA gathered – and the climate models based on them – show that the hotter, drier conditions seen this year across the West are a pattern that's likely to persist long into the future, thanks to the impact of climate change............
 

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