What's New In Science

Public Perception of Climate Change and the New Climate Dice

April 9, 2012 | Michael Tobis

Public Perception of Climate Change and the New Climate Dice
James Hansen, Makiko Sato, Reto Ruedy

Summary. Should the public be able to recognize that climate is changing, despite the notorious variability of weather and climate from day to day and year to year? We investigate how the probability of unusually warm seasons has changed in recent decades, with emphasis on summer, when changes are likely to have the greatest practical effects. [more]
Economic costs of ocean acidification: a look into the impacts on global shellfish production

February 3, 2012 | thingsbreak

by Daiju Narita, Katrin Rehdanz, and Richard S. J. Tol

Climatic Change

in press, doi:10.1007/s10584-011-0383-3

ABSTRACT: Ocean acidification is increasingly recognized as a major global problem. Yet economic assessments of its effects are currently almost absent. Unlike most other marine organisms, mollusks, which have significant commercial value worldwide, have relatively solid scientific evidence of biological impact of acidification and allow us to make such an economic evaluation. [more]
Observed changes in top-of-the-atmosphere radiation and upper-ocean heating consistent within uncertainty

January 31, 2012 | thingsbreak

by Norman G. Loeb, John M. Lyman, Gregory C. Johnson, Richard P. Allan, David R. Doelling, Takmeng Wong, Brian J. Soden, and Graeme L. Stephens

Nature Geoscience

in press, doi:10.1038/ngeo1375

ABSTRACT: Global climate change results from a small yet persistent imbalance between the amount of sunlight absorbed by Earth and the thermal radiation emitted back to space1. [more]
Detecting regional anthropogenic trends in ocean acidification against natural variability

January 25, 2012 | thingsbreak

by T. Friedrich, A. Timmermann, A. Abe-Ouchi, N. R. Bates, M. O. Chikamoto, M. J. Church, J. E. Dore, D. K. Gledhill, M. González-Dávila, M. Heinemann, T. Ilyina, J. H. Jungclaus, E. McLeod, A. Mouchet, and J. M. Santana-Casiano

Nature Climate Change

in press, doi:10.1038/nclimate1372

ABSTRACT: Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution humans have released ~500 billion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere through fossil-fuel burning, cement production and land-use changes1, 2. [more]
Orbital control on carbon cycle and oceanography in the mid-Cretaceous greenhouse

January 25, 2012 | thingsbreak

by Martino Giorgioni, Helmut Weissert, Stefano M. Bernasconi, Peter A. Hochuli, Rodolfo Coccioni, and Christina E. Keller

Paleoceanography

27, PA1204, doi:10.1029/2011PA002163.

ABSTRACT: We established a new high-resolution carbonate carbon isotope record of the Albian interval of the Marne a Fucoidi Formation (Central Apennines, Italy), which was deposited on the southern margin of the western Tethys Ocean. [more]
What influence will future solar activity changes over the 21st century have on projected global near surface temperature changes?

January 25, 2012 | thingsbreak

by Gareth S. Jones, Michael Lockwood, and Peter A. Stott

Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres

in press, doi:10.1029/2011JD017013

ABSTRACT: During the 20th century solar activity increased in magnitude to a so called `grand maximum’. It is probable that this high level of solar activity is at or near its end. [more]
Uncertainties in Global Climate Change Estimates

December 18, 2011 | Michael Tobis

by Elizabeth Paté-Cornell

Climatic Change
Volume 33, Number 2, 145-149, DOI: 10.1007/BF00140245

Full text (PDF format) available.

ABSTRACT:

“The models used in the assessment of the effects of global climate change are based on limited knowledge of the fundamental phenomena, for instance, the role of the clouds and of the oceans (IPCC, 1996). [more]
Donner et al 2011: Preparing to manage climate change financing

December 3, 2011 | Michael Tobis

Donner SD, Kandlikar M, Zerriffi, H (2011). Preparing to manage climate change financing.

Science, 18 November 2011:
Vol. 334 no. 6058 pp. 908-909
DOI: 10.1126/science.1211886

Subscription NOT required with these links: <Summary> <Full text> <pdf>

At the 2010 Cancun Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the international community agreed in principle to one of the largest development programs in history. [more]
Interview with Nathan Urban on his new paper “Climate Sensitivity Estimated from Temperature Reconstructions of the Last Glacial Maximum”

November 24, 2011 | thingsbreak

Nathan Urban is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He recently spoke to Planet 3.0 about the topic of climate sensitivity here. Today, he’s graciously agreed to answer some questions about a paper he co-authored that was just published in the journal Science. [more]
Abstract Round Up: 11/07-11/15

November 16, 2011 | thingsbreak

A contribution to attribution of recent global warming by out-of-sample Granger causality analysis

ABSTRACT: The topic of attribution of recent global warming is usually faced by studies performed through global climate models (GCMs). Even simpler econometric models have been applied to this problem, but they led to contrasting results. In this article, we show that a genuine predictive approach of Granger analysis leads to overcome problems shown by these models and to obtain a clear signal of linear Granger causality from greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the global temperature of the second half of the 20th century. [more]
Aerosol Indirect Effect on Biogeochemical Cycles and Climate

November 12, 2011 | Michael Tobis

via Lou Grinzo:

Just spotted this (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6057/794):

Aerosol Indirect Effect on Biogeochemical Cycles and Climate

Abstract: The net effect of anthropogenic aerosols on climate is
usually considered the sum of the direct radiative effect of
anthropogenic aerosols, plus the indirect effect of these aerosols
through aerosol-cloud interactions. However, an additional impact of
aerosols on a longer time scale is their indirect effect on climate
through biogeochemical feedbacks, largely due to changes in the
atmospheric concentration of CO2. [more]
Abstract Round Up: 10/31-11/06

November 6, 2011 | thingsbreak

Correlation between climate sensitivity and aerosol forcing and its implication for the “climate trap”

ABSTRACT: Climate sensitivity and aerosol forcing are dominant uncertain properties of the global climate system. Their estimates based on the inverse approach are interdependent as historical temperature records constrain possible combinations. Nevertheless, many literature projections of future climate are based on the probability density of climate sensitivity and an independent aerosol forcing without considering the interdependency of such estimates. [more]