To say that ‘Moscow is experiencing forest fires’ doesn’t really capture the maginitude of the impact. NASA has released an infrared video taken with an instrument on its Echo satellite that shows the amount of carbon monoxide at 18,000 feet. The cloud blankets a wide portion of western Russia.
Archive for the ‘Science’ Category
NASA tracks pollution flow from Russian fires
Friday, August 13th, 2010Vast ice ”island” breaks free of Greenland glacier
Monday, August 9th, 2010In the last few days, a huge ice island broke free of Greenland, which continues to lose more glacial ice each year than snow adds. Is this evidence for global warming? Maybe yes, maybe no. Scientists can measure the ocean surface temperature, but know little about temperatures under the glaciers.
Drought strains Russian wheat supplies
Monday, August 9th, 2010Expect to pay more for a loaf of bread this Fall. Severe weather has reduced wheat crops worldwide, driving up prices. In Russia, drought has cut the winter crop by 20%, and sparked wildfires. In Ukraine, officials have imposed a wheat export ban. Europe is too hot and dry, Canada too wet.
Overcome by heat and inertia
Thursday, July 29th, 2010Temperature records continue to fall across the country. In Washington D.C., which experienced it’s warmest June on record, Senators are picking up the debate on the climate change bill. While temperatures warm, glaciers melt, and sea level rises, there is little hope of that the bill will receive the necessary votes to prevent it from being stalled.
For now, with limited progress on U.S. climate policy, we must accept the fact that “hot is the new normal.”
Indoor living and the global greenhouse
Thursday, July 29th, 2010Here’s a novel approach to reducing man’s energy footprint and thereby limiting climate warming. Let’s hope, however, that Mumbai isn’t air conditioned anytime soon.
Stephen H. Schneider, Climatologist, is dead at 65
Thursday, July 29th, 2010This death notice could give people an idea of what climatologists actually do, thereby taking some of the mystery out of what is to many an arcane, unknown world.
The heat wave and the climate divide
Monday, July 19th, 2010Was the heat wave experienced by the east coast earlier this month the result of climate change? It’s impossible to say since climate change isn’t defined by single events, but rather long term (thirty years or more) averages and frequencies. What we can say is that conditions experienced during the heat wave may be a taste of summers to come if the frequency of days with high temperatures around 100 °F increases, as is expected to happen with increasing average global temperatures.
A mammoth effect
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010There is general agreement among scientists that man has a role in global warming. This impact began, if the research reported here is correct, not with the industrial revolution or even the advent of slash and burn agriculture, but rather seven millennia ago with the killing of the mammoths. Fewer mammoths would have meant more deciduous trees, whose darker leaves would have led to more sunlight being absorbed, and a slightly warmer climate.
When the day after tomorrow has come
Tuesday, July 6th, 2010Geoengineering is the application of engineering on a global scale. Some want to use it to cool a warming climate, removing carbon from the atmosphere, or reflecting solar radiation back into space. Others worry it could lead to disaster. Three new books explore the potential risks and rewards.
Why climate stumps even the brightest scientists
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010Climate scientists are nearly unanimous that the earth is warming, and that human activity is the main cause. But they don’t agree how much Earth will warm. Researchers queried 14 leading climate scientists using expert elicitation. All identified the role of clouds as the biggest uncertainty.