Eyjafjallajökull eruption: good news for the climate?
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
The Two-Degree Target film on YouTube
As promised, here’s the YouTube version of the Nature film on climate change: … Read more
Cloudy knowledge
Despite decades of research, relationships between clouds, aerosols and precipitation are poorly understood, concludes a review article in Nature today. Read more
Sunburnt Southern Hemisphere in 2095
Global warming doesn’t just change the weather, it also affects the ozone layer. According to a detailed new modelling study, by 2095 the springtime UV index (UVI) could go up by as much as 20% on the southernmost section of the planet, as altered atmospheric circulation pushes more stratospheric ozone into the Northern Hemisphere. That’s nearly half the UVI increase caused by ozone-eating pollutants in the late twentieth century – but coming from climate change alone. Read more
Ozone: The patient is not getting sicker
Twenty years after the Montreal Protocol came into effect to regulate substances that deplete the ozone layer, the annual ozone hole above Antarctica shows no signs of recovery. A feature article and editorial in Nature today explain why this is so, and why the Montreal Protocol has been a unique success nonetheless. As things stand, scientists expect the first signs of recovery of springtime ozone depletion in the polar stratosphere around the year 2065. Outside polar regions, where chemical ozone destruction is less pronounced but potentially harmful to human health, it appears as if ozone levels are beginning to increase. Read more
Cloud shields breached by warming
Blankets of low clouds shield and cool the Earth’s surface – but in a warming climate, will this safety blanket thicken, or will it deteriorate? That question has bugged climatologists for decades. A paper published in Science today (subscription) now offers convincing evidence that warming leads to fewer clouds, and thus exposure to more warming. Read more
Bryter Layter?
The skies over most land areas are not, as previous studies have suggested, becoming cleaner. Read more
Biomass, biomass, burning black
A study published in Science today (subscription) uses carbon-14 measurements to figure out where the black carbon drifting in the haze above South Asia is coming from. That’s a prerequisite to cleaning it up – which, as we’ve reported here, could be a major boon to a very vulnerable region. The light-absorbing compound not only causes cancer (among other ill health effects), but reportedly warms some places as much as greenhouse gases do. Because its lifespan in the atmosphere is far shorter than carbon dioxide’s, these impacts could potentially be reduced quickly – if we knew where to clamp down. Read more
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