This mega effort by the US Geologic survey created a map of the Antarctic Peninsula Ice Shelves and their retreat during the study period. The report summary quotes "The map portrays one of the most rapidly changing areas on Earth, and the changes in the map area are widely regarded as among the most profound,…
Twelve dust storms this spring have coated the southwestern Rockies with dust speeding snowmelt by 35 days earlier than average. The faster snowmelt will lead to decreased runoff later in the season, a climate change prediction that is being realized all too soon. The dust storm frequency was a bit unexpected however. In the entire…
We have come to understand an enormous amount about our climate since the turn of the Century. the latest and most accurate super computer models are now predicting climate change far worse than was predicted with the IPCC Fourth Assessment. The MIT News release begins: "The most comprehensive modeling yet carried out on the likelihood…
The report says: "This idealized emissions scenario is based on emissions peaking in 2015 and quickly changing from an increase of 2–3% per year to a decrease of 3% per year. For every 10 years we delay action another 0.5 °C will be added to the most likely temperature rise." http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climatechange/policymakers/policy/temperaturerises.html
"Our science advisors had told us to expect thicker, older ice on at least part of the route, so it is something of a mystery where that older ice has gone. It’ll be interesting to see what scientists think about this." A woman and two men pulling sledges nearly 300 miles across the Arctic sea…
The major aerosols are black carbon (see May 7), sulfates and oxides of nitrogen (NOx). They come from combustion. Black carbon comes mostly from the burning of most fuels in developing and third world nations where pollution controls are not as stringent as in the developing world. Sulfates and NOx comes mostly from coal and…
Black soot comes from and biofuels such as wood and organic fuel in cooking fires, diesel and fuel oil emissions, wildfires, agricultural burning, etc. The problem is most severe in developing and third world countries. New studies have shown that black carbon is far more significant at warming than previously assumed. It is a major…
"There’s been a super-rapid decline in the glaciers of the region" This quote is from "Ice, Snow, and Water: Impacts of Climate Change on Himalayan Asia & California", University of California, San Diego, Sustainability Solutions Institute. Glacier National Park will not be the only place that is glacierless in 20 to 30 years. The scientists…
