The melting of permafrost

Updated: Discovery of Positive Methane Feedback from Permafrost Thaw

Update: As pointed out by one of the authors, Rhiannon Mondav, the microbe is not considered an entire new discovery. (See comment below). Phys.org explains: Scientists from The University of Queensland have discovered a microbe that is set to play a significant role in future global warming. UQ’s Australian Centre for Ecogenomics researcher Ben Woodcroft said…

The Fingerprints of Sea Level Change

This meeting was held March 31-April 2, 2011 at the AAAS Auditorium, in Washington, D.C. and was organized by Rita Colwell, Christopher Field, Jeffrey Shaman, and Susan Solomon Meeting Overview Climate science is addressing issues that require an increasingly interdisciplinary perspective, posing new challenges to scientists and to the organization and support of this science.…

Stronger Winds Shift Heat to Deeper Pacific

Published on Feb 9, 2014 Heat stored in the western Pacific Ocean caused by an unprecedented strengthening of the equatorial trade winds appears to be largely responsible for the hiatus in surface warming observed over the past 13 years. New research published in the journal Nature Climate Change indicates that the dramatic acceleration in winds…

2013 was the second-hottest year without an El Niño since before 1850

The Guardian: According to the global surface temperate data set compiled by Kevin Cowtan and Robert Way, which achieves the best coverage of the rapidly-warming Arctic by filling in data gaps between temperature stations using a statistical method called kriging, 2013 was the 5th-hottest year on record (since 1850). The top three hottest years (2010, 2005,…

Is Ocean Acidification an Open-Ocean Syndrome? Understanding Anthropogenic Impacts on Seawater pH

March 2013, Volume 36, Issue 2, pp 221-236 Read the full study @ http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12237-013-9594-3/fulltext.html | Abstract | PDF Carlos M. Duarte, Iris E. Hendriks, Tommy S. Moore, Ylva S. Olsen, Alexandra Steckbauer, Laura Ramajo, Jacob Carstensen, Julie A. Trotter, Malcolm McCulloch Abstract Ocean acidification due to anthropogenic CO2 emissions is a dominant driver of long-term changes in pH in the open ocean,…

Arctic Death Spiral 1979-2013 ( Sea Ice Decline / Deglaciation)

Monthly averages from January 1979 – 2014 (Jan). Data source via the Polar Science Center (University of Washington) URL.  Data visualisation by Andy Lee Robinson.   Arctic Death Spiral by Andy Lee Robinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on a work at http://haveland.com/share/arctic-death-spiral.png. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may…

2013 Is the Fourth Hottest Year on Record

By Phil Plait (Slate):  It’s official: 2013 is the fourth hottest year since records started being kept in 1880. It ties with 2003 for that dubious honor. This result was just announced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It uses global annual land and sea surface temperatures to make the call, and in 2013 these two measures combined…

How the Koch Brothers hijack the System

By Climate Science Watch | January 8, 2014 | Release URL Almost four years ago we started to call attention to the Koch brothers, radical ‘free market’ oil and gas conglomerate multibillionaires, as significant funders of the global warming denial machine (Koch Industries multibillionaire Koch brothers bankroll attacks on climate change science and policy). Since then, the Koch…

Thawing Permafrost Could Release Vast Carbon Deposits, Diseases

by Science World Report | January 8, 2014 | Release URL Dr Guido Grosse has been studying the Arctic for fourteen years to find out how the frozen ground, known as the permafrost, is reacting to an environment that is getting hotter all the time. The samples he has drilled out – in regions so…