Sea level rise: defence and development
Olive Heffernan … Read more
The climate machine
Olive Heffernan … Read more
The real holes in climate science
When I started working last month on a news feature about gaps in climate science I was expecting a tough reporting job. Too fresh, so I thought, were the scars the field and many leading scientists had received from the hacking affair at the Climate Research Unit (CRU) in Norwich to readily discuss with a reporter the ‘dirty laundry’ (my phrase) of climate science. Read more
Warming speeds carbon release from peat
Northern peatlands, typical for subarctic Scandinavia and Russia, contain one third of the world’s soil organic carbon. How much extra carbon these soils will release to the atmosphere, through accelerated respiration in a warmer climate, has been pretty much guesswork. Data from an eight-year in situ experiment carried out in Sweden now suggest that even modest warming will release enough extra carbon to effectively equalize the European Union’s emissions reductions achieved under the Kyoto Protocol. Read more
Development community must accept uncertainty
Uncertainty in regional climate projections isn’t going away, and that’s an inconvenient truth the development community will have to face, says Christoph Müller of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impacts Research in Germany. Read more
The wheel of climate fortune
This week’s Nature has an extended climate special made of original research papers, features, commentaries, editorials, essays and book reviews. Here’s the content at a glance. Read more
Bryter Layter?
The skies over most land areas are not, as previous studies have suggested, becoming cleaner. Read more
The global warming signal minus the El Niño noise
Andrew Revkin of the New York Times has been wondering whether climatologists could help turn down the “rhetorical noise” on recent temperature trends: … Read more
A tribute to the trees
For all tree huggers out there, this week’s Science is dedicated to ‘forests in flux’, paying tribute to the trees and their contribution to the greater good. A special collection of articles in print, with complementary and online material, examines the fate of the world’s forests, in the face of climate change and an escalating human population. If it’s been a while since you’ve had the chance to appreciate the languid leafiness of forest foliage, check out the online video. Or for those of you hoping for a more ‘hands on’ experience, there’s a whole section of Science Careers dedicated … Read more
Quantifying climate change – not so certain?
Olive Heffernan … Read more
Recent comments on this blog
Is east Antarctic ice melting?
AAAS 2011: Climate change poses challenge to food safety
PICES Conference: How much fish in the future?