New photovoltaic technology first reported almost a year ago is emerging that is nearly five times more efficient than current technology. It uses silicon, like normal crystalline cells, but a unique fabrication process uses only about 2% of the amount of silicon that normal cells use and the material is created in a flexible film….
January 1, 2011 CO2 A researcher at the University of Exeter in the UK leads a team that has published a paper in Nature Geoscience about projections for 2011 CO2 emissions. Based on emissions declines during the recession and projections of economic out put for 2011, the team has found that CO2 emissions will likely…
Recent studies using the new GRACE gravity measuring satellites (see here) have shown startling new results for ice melt / ice loss from Antarctica. As the dataset from the new satellites, put up in 2003, grows larger, the melt / ice loss continues to grow. Previous studies have shown the melt/loss coming mainly from West…
Non CO2 Greenhouse Gas Warming Will Persist for Longer Than 1,000 Years Abstract: Emissions of a broad range of greenhouse gases of varying lifetimes contribute to global climate change. Carbon dioxide displays exceptional persistence that renders its warming nearly irreversible for more than 1,000 years. Here we show that the warming due to non-CO2 greenhouse…
The ice fields atop Mount Kilimanjaro have lost 85 percent of their coverage since 1912; The Quelccaya ice cap in southern Peru — the largest tropical ice field on Earth, has retreated 25 percent since 1978; Ice fields in the Himalayas that have long shown traces of the radioactive bomb tests in the 1950s and…
In the thousands of scientific papers on climate change that I have reviewed, most of the results talk about how lab tests sequestered far more carbon than imagined; about how the new techniques have been “scaled up” to mass production capacity and shown to be valid. The cost analyses show what at first would seem…
A decrease in Polar sea ice and the extreme winter events of the northeastern U.S. and Europe in 2005 have been recreated in modeling. It appears that warmer temperatures in the Arctic have an impact thousands of miles away as the jet stream makes a huge bend south. The results are snowpocali, or snowpocalypses. Only…
Two US Geological Survey researchers published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of sciences of the United States of America this month and found, not only is there ongoing unprecedented forest die-off from warming and, drought, beetles and disease, but these forests are particularly susceptible to eco-regime change: these forests will likely…
During the last interglacial warm period, this study says temps were 2 to 3 degrees warmer. There is considerable disagreement about this. James Hansen says a lot less. Hmmm… Maybe we are already warmer than when sea level was 24 feet higher. There are numerous different estimates of paleotemperatures, especially the last interglacial. they mostly…
(Abstract) Results indicate statistically significant negative trends for melt onset and end dates as well as for the length of the melt season. On the average, over the past 30 years melt has been starting (finishing) ∼0.5 days/year (∼1 days/year) earlier and the length of the melting season is shortening by ∼0.6 days/year. Results indicate…
The Australian Research Council (ARC) said in press release that reefs are dead or dying across the Indian Ocean and into the Coral Triangle because of extra warm surface waters from the Seychelles in the west to Sulawesi and the Philippines in the east including reefs in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and many…
Rag Radio 2010-12-03 / Environmentalist Bruce Melton on Climate Science and Global Warming by Rag Radio with Thorne Dreyer Podcast – https://archive.org/details/RagRadio2010-12-03 Bruce Melton is an Austin-based civil engineer and a student of climate science. He is an environmental researcher, trained outreach specialist, a green builder, an environmental filmmaker, and a regular contributor to The Rag…
Bruce on Rag Radio, KOOP, Austin (12/03/2010) Investigative Journalist Thorne Dryer interviews Bruce about his work with climate change outreach.
How do we curb emissions with the way our society has evolved? Really. I mean serious curbing; enough to prevent dangerous climate change? When considering the answer, dangerous climate change must be clearly defined. So, what exactly is dangerous climate change? Read More — First published on the Rag Blog
Do you realize that ocean primary productivity has declined 40% since 1950? Or that, this year’s coral bleaching was worse than during the super El Nino of ’98? Or that, the Arctic was declared functionally ice free last summer for the first time in 14 million years? Read More — First published on the Rag…
A Duke University-led team of climate scientists has looked at 60 years of U.S. and European weather and climate data and found the Bermuda High has increased in intensity. Their finding have shown that this, in-turn, has led to an increase in the intensity of the weather extremes in the southeastern U.S. The Bermuda High,…
The science has changed again. This time, things are really upside down. How are we supposed to know which target to shoot? We live, we learn. Science goes on, especially climate science. There is an extreme need for more knowledge about our climate. This has been obvious to the climate scientists for years. The titles in…
American Meteorological Society The certainty that climate scientists have about climate changes becomes greater every day. Yet, the portion of the public that agrees with the principles of man-caused climate change, or the risks faced, or the speed with which our climate is changing, or even the understanding of the certainty of the scientists themselves,…
"In Russia, the wildfires are believed caused by a warming climate that made the current summer the hottest on record. The hotter weather increases the incidence of lightning, the major cause of naturally occurring biomass burning. Soja said she hopes the wildfires in Russia prompt the country to support efforts to mitigate climate change….
Freshwater is flowing into Earth’s ocean in greater amounts every year, thanks to more frequent and extreme storms related to global warming, according to a first-of-its-kind study by a team of NASA and university researchers. "In general, more water is good," Famiglietti said. "But here’s the problem: Not everybody is getting more rainfall, and those…