having it both ways – page 1

trees less colorful

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Scientists at the University of New Hampshire project that shifts in the climate caused by global warming will progressively dull the leaves throughout southern New England and New York over the next century. Maples will move north and the remaining oaks and hickories will change colors later and with less verve, they say.

“We haven’t had a really great display in the last 10 years,” said Barrett Rock, a professor in natural resources and a researcher at the Complex Systems Research Center at the University of New Hampshire who has studied the effects of global warming on the autumn landscape from New York to Maine.
New York Times, 16 Oct 2005

trees more colorful

The Tree Council this week said global warming caused this season’s russet reds to deep golden yellows. The lack of moisture in autumn means that a different pigment is produced called anthocyanin, says Nick Collinson, conservation policy adviser at the Woodland Trust. This gives leaves more of a red colour.

“Climate change models for the UK suggest we are likely to have hotter and drier summers, which will encourage the kind of colours you normally see in a New England fall.”
The Guardian 18 Nov 2004
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see also – having it both ways

paint your roof white

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Two years ago, Barack Obama’s top man on global warming, Professor Steven Chu, the US Secretary of Energy, suggested at the Royal Society in London that one of the most effective engineering measures to tackle rising temperatures is to paint roofs.

He estimated that a city or town where the roofs and the pavements and roads have light-coloured surfaces can increase their albedo by about 10 per cent, which globally would provide a CO2 offset of between 130 billion and 150 billion tonnes – the same as taking every car in the world off the road for 50 years.
The Independent, 13 Apr 2012

don’t paint your roof white

The land covered by urban areas more than doubled between 1992 and 2005, to about 0.128% of Earth’s surface, Mark Z. Jacobson and John E. Ten Hoeve of Stanford University report in the Journal of Climate. A worldwide conversion to white roofs, they found, could actually warm the Earth slightly due a complex domino effect.

Although white surfaces are cooler, the increased sunlight they reflect back into the atmosphere by can increase absorption of light by dark pollutants such as black carbon, which increases heating.
The Guardian, 27 Oct 2011
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Amazon rainforests threatened

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Over time, global climate change and more deforestation will likely lead to increased temperatures and changing rain patterns in the Amazon, which will undoubtedly affect the region’s forests, water availability, biodiversity, agriculture, and human health.

Research carried out under the auspices of INPE – Brazil’s National Space Research Institute – shows that a warmer and drier environment for the region could convert from 30% up to 60% of the Amazon rainforest into a type of dry savanna.
WWF, Climate change in the Amazon

Amazon rainforests not threatened

The Amazon rainforest is less vulnerable to die off because of global warming than widely believed because the greenhouse carbon dioxide also acts as an airborne fertilizer, a study showed on Wednesday.

“I’m no longer so worried about a catastrophic die-back due to CO2-induced climate change,” Professor Peter Cox of the University of Exeter in England told Reuters of the study he led in the Journal Nature. “In that sense it’s good news.
Reuters, 6 Feb 2013

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winters colder

Britain’s winters are getting colder because of melting Arctic ice, the Government’s forecaster said yesterday. Mety Office chief scientist Julia Slingo said climate change was “loading the dice” towards freezing drier weather – and called publicly for the first time for an urgent investigation.
The Sun (UK), 11 Apr 2013
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fish getting smaller

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Global warming is likely to shrink the size of fish by as much as a quarter in coming decades, according to a groundbreaking study of the world’s oceans.

Researchers modelled the effect of rising ocean temperatures on the growth and distribution of more than 600 fish species around the world and found they were expected to shrink by 14-24 per cent by 2050.

Sydney Morning Herald, 2 Oct 2012

fish getting bigger

The tuna industry says climate change is bringing benefits. The chief executive of the Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Association, Brian Jeffriess, says Port Lincoln crews in South Australia are reporting an excellent quality and size catch. He says it can be partly attributed to the effects of climate change on the waters of the Great Australian Bight.
ABC News (Australia, 11 July 2008
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less mosquitoes

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Malaria transmission will not increase because of global warming in the African nation of Burundi according to a statistical analysis by researchers in Austria and Burundi. Writing in the International Journal of Global Warming, the team explains that rising temperatures will lead to lower humidity and rainfall which will shorten the lifespan of mosquitoes carrying malaria.
Science Daily, 2 Feb 2011

more mosquitoes

All else being equal, as the planet warms, it seems likely that malaria will become more dangerous to more people. “This is indisputable evidence of a climate effect,” said Mercedes Pascual, a disease ecologist at Michigan and one of authors of the Science paper. “Our findings here underscore the size of the problem and emphasize the need for sustained intervention efforts in these regions, especially in Africa.”
Time.com, 6 mar 2014
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islands sinking

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The analysis clearly indicates that sea-level in this region (tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans) is rising. We expect that the continued and increasing rate of sea-level rise and any resulting increase in the frequency or intensity of extreme sea-level events will cause serious problems for the inhabitants of some of these islands during the 21st century.
John A. Church and others, Global and Planetary Change, Vol 53, Issue 3, September 2006, pages 155-168

islands not sinking

Using historical aerial photography and satellite images this study presents the first quantitive analysis of physical changes in 27 atoll island in the central Pacific over a 19 to 61 yr period….Results show 43% of islands remained stable on increased in area (43%) over the time frame of the analysis…Only 14% of study islands exhibited a net reduction in island area.
Arthur P. Webb and Paul S. Kench, Global and Planetary Change, Vol 72, Issue 3, 3 Jun 2010, pages 234-246.
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Antarctic ice decreases

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While I was at Palmer, just across the mountains of the Peninsula, the massive Larsen B ice shelf began collapsing at catastrophic speed, changing forever the outline of the east coast. It was dramatic evidence of warming.

After the ferocious summer, changes on the Antarctic peninsula continued faster than scientists had ever anticipated. They were of greater speed, scale and magnitude than had ever been considered possible. Scientists say that they were shocked by warming so fast, intense and widespread.

SciencePoles, interview with Meredith Hooper, 20 Aug 2007

less fires in boreal forests

Despite increasing temperatures since the end of the Little Ice Age (circa 1850) wildfire frequency has decreased as shown in many field studies from North America and Europe. We believe that global warming since 1850 may have triggered decreases in fire frequency in some regions and future warming may even lead to further decreases in fire frequency…

The simulation and fire history results suggest that the impact of global warming on northern forests through forest fires may not be disastrous and that contrary to the expectations of an overall increase in forest fires there may be large regions of the Northern Hemisphere with a reduced fire frequency.
M.D. Flanagan and others, Journal of Vegetation Science Vol 9, Issue 4, pages 469 – 476, August 1998

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Snowdon going downhill

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The data collected by experts from the (Bangor) university suggests that a white Christmas on Snowdon – the tallest mountain in England and Wales – may one day become no more than a memory. The figures indicated that this winter Snowdon is on track to have less snow than any of the last 10 years.The results appear to back the growing body of evidence to support climate change.
BBC News 20 Dec 2004

Earth speeds up

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Climate change can also affect the Earth’s spin. Previously, Felix Landerer of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. and colleagues showed that global warming would cause Earth’s mass to be redistributed towards higher latitudes. Since that pulls mass closer to the planet’s spin axis, it causes the planet to rotate faster – just as an ice skater spins faster when she pulls her arms towards her body.
New Scientist 20 Aug 2009

more rain

Climate change ”cannot be ruled out” as a factor in recent heavy rainfalls, such as the flash flooding in Sydney on March 8, the wettest March day for more than 25 years, a report by the federal government’s Climate Commission says. The chief commissioner, Tim Flannery, said NSW was highly vulnerable to climate change.
Sydney Morning Herald, Environment, 14 May 2012
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thanks to Firey

less summer rain

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A change in the North Atlantic current could lead to the end of the soggy British summers, researchers have claimed….. A decline in its speed, however, could cool the North Atlantic and put an end to the pattern, bringing colder but drier summer weather to Britain in future, experts explained.
The Telegraph (UK) 19 Jan 2014

less coral reefs

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Coral reefs will be the first global ecosystem to collapse in our lifetimes. More than 450 scientists from over 60 countries are participating in the “Effects of Climate Change on the World’s Oceans” symposium. When CO2 in the atmosphere reaches a concentration of 450 to 500 parts per million (ppm), the oceans will mostly be too acidic for corals to grow.
IPS News, May 2008

more coral reefs

Coral reefs could be growing 35 per cent faster by the next century because of global warming. A team from the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, modelled interactions between the atmosphere, oceans and ice and found that warmer water would increase the rate of coral calcification, outweighing the detrimental effect of lower calcium carbonate levels. By 2100, corals would be growing 35 per cent faster than they do today, they predicted.
The Scotsman, 8/12/04

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The Earth is not doomed!

Environmental scientist James Lovelock, renowned for his terrifying predictions of climate change’s deadly impact on the planet, has gone back on his previous claims, admitting they were ‘alarmist’.

“The problem is we don’t know what the climate is doing.We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books – mine included – because it looked clear cut, but it hasn’t happened”.

He added that other environmental commentators, such as former vice president Al Gore, are also guilty of exaggerating their arguments.

The Daily Mail (Australia) 24 April 2012
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—thanks to Mervyn

oceans less salty

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The salt content of the ocean is on the decline, a sign of potentially worrisome consequences that scientists can’t accurately predict. Since the late 1960s, much of the North Atlantic Ocean has become less salty, in part due to increases in fresh water runoff induced by global warming, scientists say.
Live Science, 29 Jun 2005

oceans more salty

Global warming is making the sea more salty, according to new research that demonstrates the massive shifts in natural systems triggered by climate change.

Experts at the UK Met Office and Reading University say warmer temperatures over the Atlantic Ocean have significantly increased evaporation and reduced rainfall across a giant stretch of water from Africa to the Carribean in recent years. The change concentrates salt in the water left behind.
The Guardian, 27 Oct 2008
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global warming causes decline in trade winds

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The vast looping system of air currents that fuels Pacific trade winds and climate from South America to South-East Asia may be another victim of climate change, according to scientists. The system has weakened by 3.5 per cent over the past 140 years and the culprit is probably human-induced climate change, scientists report in today’s issue of the journal Nature.
ABC (Australia) News 5 May 2006 “Global warming weakens air currents”

trade winds cause decline in global warming

Stronger than normal trade winds in the central Pacific are the main cause of a 13-year halt in global surface temperatures increases, an Australian study reveals.The authors reject the study gives impetus to climate change deniers and instead suggest that when the winds ease, global warming will accelerate rapidly.
ABC Science (Australia) 10 Feb 2014 “Warming slowdown caused by Pacific winds”
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Antarctica gaining weight

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The eastern half of Antarctica is gaining weight, more than 45 billion tons a year as snow and ice pile up, according to a new scientific study. ”It’s been long predicted by climate models,” said Dr. Curt H. Davis, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Missouri and the lead author of a paper that was published on the Web site of the journal Science yesterday. ”This is the first observational evidence.”
New York Times, 20 May 2005

Antarctica losing weight

From 2010 to 2013, West Antarctica, East Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula lost 134 billion, 3 billion and 23 billion tonnes of ice each year respectively. Dr Malcolm Macmillan from Leeds University, who was the lead author of the study, said the area has long been identified as the most vulnerable to changes in climate and assessments suggest its glaciers may have passed a point of irreversible retreat.
The Independent (UK) 19 May 2014
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winds decrease

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Windmills, one of the Netherlands’ trademarks, may go idle because of less wind as a result of climate change, Dutch scientists predict. “It’s too late now to avoid the temperature rise. It’s unchangeable,” a spokesman for the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute said. “But if we are doing our very best, by reducing CO2 levels by 60 to 80 percent between now and 2050, we can avoid a temperature rise higher than 1-2 degrees (Celsius).”
Counter Currents 27 Oct 2005

winds increase

As a result of stronger winds caused by global warming, seeds and pollen are being carried over longer distances across Germany. An increase in temperature of only a couple of degrees may increase the dispersal of plants in Northern forests and the spread of plant species into forest clearings after felling or forest fires. University of Helsinki researcher Anna Kuparinen headed the international research into the impact of global warming on seed and pollen dispersal.
www.alphagalileo.org/, 11 Jun 2009
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