2009 Was Second Warmest Year on Record



Recent Cooling Attributed to Stratospheric Dry Spell



2000-2009 Is Hottest Decade on Record

The 2000-2009 decade was the warmest on record, easily surpassing the previous hottest decade — the 1990s — researchers saidin a report providing fresh evidence that the planet may be warming at a potentially disastrous rate. In 2009, global surface temperatures were 1.01 degree above average, which tied the year for the fifth warmest year on record, the National Climatic Data Center said. That helped push the 2000-2009 decade to 0.96 degree above normal, which the agency said "shattered" the 1990s record value of 0.65 degree above normal.

Arctic Methane Spike Startles Scientists



C02 Levels Indicate Earth May Be Entering a New Pliocene Era

Carbon dioxide concentrations in the early Pliocene, about 5 million years ago, were likely between 365 and 415 ppm. During that period, palm trees grew in Antarctica and alligators swam in the Arctic. We're already well within that range.

Researcher Maps Shrinkage of Snow Cover in Northern Hemisphere Since 1980



2010 Projected To Be Hottest Year on Record



Climate Changing Much Faster Than Scientists' Projections

Global warming is happening faster than expected and at worst could raise sea levels by up to 2 meters (6-1/2 ft) by 2100, a group of scientists said. In what they called a "Copenhagen Diagnosis," updating findings in a broader 2007 U.N. climate report, 26 experts urged action to cap rising world greenhouse gas emissions by 2015 or 2020 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. "Climate change is accelerating beyond expectations," a joint statement said, pointing to factors including a retreat of Arctic sea ice in summer and melting of ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica.

WMO: GHGs Continue To Increase Exponentially

Levels of most greenhouse gases continue to increase. In 2008, global concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, which are the main long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, have reached the highest levels recorded since pre-industrial times. Since 1990, the overall increase in radiative forcing caused by all long-lived greenhouse gases is 26% and the increase was 1.3% from 2007 to 2008. These latest figures, published today in the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) 2008 Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, confirm the continued trend of rising atmospheric burdens of greenhouse gases since 1750.

Scientists: Current Trend Leads to 6* C Rise

Average global temperatures are on course to rise by up to 6C without urgent action to curb CO2 emissions, the lead author of a new analysis says. Emissions rose by 29% between 2000 and 2008, says the Global Carbon Project. All of that growth came in developing countries, but a quarter of it came through production of goods for consumption in industrialised nations.

Increase in Record High Temperatures Confirms Warming

New research shows that daily record high temperatures across the continental U.S. occurred twice as often as record lows over the last decade.  "Climate change is making itself felt in terms of day-to-day weather," a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research said in a statement announcing the research. "The ways these records are being broken show how our climate is already shifting."

15 Million-year-old Precedent finds Earth's CO2 Sensitivity to be High

Researchers found that todays carbon levels were last reached 20 million years ago -- and that the planet's systems are highly sensitive to changes in levels of atmospheric CO2.

Realclimate Scientists Dispute Coming "Pause" in Warming

Last week we proposed a bet against the “pause in global warming” forecast in Nature by Keenlyside et al. and we promised to present our scientific case later – so here it is. This is why we do not think that the forecast is robust:

Six Degree Temperature Rise by 2100 is Inevitable: UNEP

Earth's temperature is likely to jump six degrees between now and the end of the century even if every country cuts greenhouse gas emissions as proposed, according to a United Nations update.

Earth Has Already Passed Three Tipping Points: Study

We are on the verge of pushing nature into a state of instability like nothing humanity has seen before, according to a study published in the journal Nature. The study found that we may have already crossed several tipping points.

Researcher Sees A Decade of Cooling Before Warming Resumes

Forecasts of climate change are about to go seriously out of kilter. We could be about to enter one or even two decades of cooler temperatures, according to one of the world's top climate modellers.

Last Decade's Hurricanes Outnumber Last Millennium's Hurricanes

The North Atlantic Ocean has spawned more hurricanes and tropical storms over the last decade than it has for 1,000 years, according to a new study.

Five-Year Forecast: Faster-Than-Expected Warming

The world faces record-breaking temperatures as the sun's activity increases, leading the planet to heat up significantly faster than scientists had predicted for the next five years. The new study is the first to assess the combined impact on global temperature of four factors: human influences such as CO2 and aerosol emissions; heating from the sun; volcanic activity and the El Nino southern oscillation.

Study: Clouds Appear to be Amplifying the Warming

Climate researchers have long viewed clouds' reaction to greenhouse warming as the key to understanding the world's climatic fate. As rising carbon dioxide strengthens the greenhouse, will some clouds thicken and spread, shading the planet and tempering the warming? Or will they thin and shrink, letting in more sunshine to amplify the warming? The first reliable analysis of cloud behavior over past decades suggests -- but falls short of proving -- that clouds are strongly amplifying the warming.

Scientists: "Abrupt and Irreversible Shifts" Increasingly Likely

The world faces a growing risk of "abrupt and irreversible climatic shifts" as fallout from global warming hits faster than expected, according to research by international scientists.

US Affected By Climate Impacts Now: Report

Man-made climate change is already lifting temperatures, increasing rainfall, and raising sea levels around the United States -- and its effects are on track to get much worse in the coming century, according to a report released by federal scientists.

Ozone Hole Alters Wind Patterns, Intensifies Acidification

The depleted ozone layer is wreaking havoc with winds over Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, according to a new study. Shifting air currents are preventing waters from soaking up the man-made greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), and simultaneously worsening the effects of ocean acidification.

Nobel Panel: Six Years to Avoid "Unmanageable Climate Risks"

World carbon emissions must start to decline in only six years if humanity is to stand a chance of preventing dangerous global warming, a group of 20 Nobel prize-winning scientists, economists and writers declared.  

Royal Society: 650 ppm May Be Inevitable

This paper concludes that it is increasingly unlikely any global agreement will deliver the radical reversal in emission trends required for stabilization at 450 ppmv carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Similarly, the current framing of climate change cannot be reconciled with the rates of mitigation necessary to stabilize at 550 ppmv CO2e and even an optimistic interpretation suggests stabilization much below 650 ppmv CO2e is improbable .

 

 

Temperatures May Double Previous Projections by 2100

Global warming will be twice as severe as previous estimates indicate, according to a new study published this month in the Journal of Climate, a publication of the American Meteorological Society.

Scientists Predict CO2 "Overshoot" in 20 Years

The world will overshoot its long-term target on greenhouse gas emissions within two decades. A study has found that the average global temperature will rise above the threshold that could cause dangerous climate change during that time.

Wildfires Seen Intensifying Climate Change
In a vicious cycle made worse by humans, scientists now believe fires spur climate change, which in turn makes blazes bigger, more frequent and more damaging to the environment.


Scientists: Temperatures Will Overshoot Safe Warming Range

Global warming is likely to overshoot a 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) rise seen by many as a trigger for "dangerous" change, a Reuters poll of scientists showed. Nine of 11 experts, who were among authors of the final summary by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 (IPCC), also said the evidence that mankind was to blame for climate change had grown stronger in the past two years.

 

CO2 Has Grown Exponentially Since 1958

Human-produced carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been increasing exponentially for at least the last 50 years. Using measurements of atmospheric CO2, a team of researchers determined that humanity's contribution of the greenhouse gas has been growing at a steady 2.3 percent since recording began in 1958. At that rate, CO2 doubles every 30 years.

Global Crisis Seen Arriving by 2030
Growing world population -- exacerbated by climate change -- will cause a "perfect storm" of food, energy and water shortages by 2030, the UK government chief scientist has warned.


Lovelock: Climate Catastrophes Will Decimate Civilization

Climate change will wipe out most life on Earth by the end of this century and mankind is too late to avert catastrophe, a leading British climate scientist said. James Lovelock, 89, famous for his Gaia theory of the Earth being a kind of living organism, said higher temperatures will turn parts of the world into desert and raise sea levels, flooding other regions.  The population of this hot, barren world could shrink from about seven billion to one billion by 2100 as people compete for ever-scarcer resources.

Arctic Thaw Portends Huge Methane Releases
As permafrost thaws in the Arctic, huge pockets of methane -- a potent greenhouse gas -- could be released into the atmosphere. Experts are only beginning to understand how disastrous that could be.


Runaway Climate Change Taking On Its Own Momentum
The pace of global warming is likely to be much faster than recent predictions, because industrial greenhouse gas emissions have increased more quickly than expected and higher temperatures are triggering self-reinforcing feedback mechanisms in global ecosystems, scientists said.


CO2 from Australia Fires Equal the Country's Annual Emissions

Victoria's bushfires have released a massive amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - almost equal to Australia's industrial emission for an entire year.

Study Confirms Seasons Arriving Earlier

The Earth's seasons have shifted back in the calendar year, with the hottest and coldest days of the years now occurring almost two days earlier, a new study finds. This shift could be the work of global warming.

Scientists Foresee Changes Lasting for 1,000 Years

Greenhouse gas levels currently expected by mid-century will produce devastating long-term droughts and a sea-level rise that will persist for 1,000 years regardless of how well the world curbs future emissions of carbon dioxide, an international team of scientists reported yesterday.

Active Hurricane Seasons Seem To Correlate With Fewer Winter Storms
Hurricane seasons that spawned more storms (like 2005, for example) led to quieter winters in the northern hemisphere, and quiet hurricane seasons led to winters with lots of storm activity.


Australian Government Ties Heat Wave to Climate Change
A heatwave scorching southern Australia, causing transport chaos by buckling rail lines and leaving more than 140,000 homes without power, is a sign of climate change, the government said.


Rapid Climate Change Could Impact US "within decades"
The US could suffer the effects of abrupt climate changes within decades -- sooner than some previously thought -- says a new government report. It contends that seas could rise rapidly if melting of polar ice continues to outrun recent projections, and that an ongoing drought in the U.S. west could be the start of permanent drying for the region.


IPCC Chair Sees Worsening Climate Impacts
An extra billion people will face water shortage, cereal production in developing countries will drop and coastal regions will face more damage from floods and storms because of delay in combating climate change, says Martin Parry, former co-chair of the IPCC.

 

NASA Confirms Powerful Amplification of Water Vapor

Scientists have confirmed that the heat-trapping properties of water vapour could double the effect of greenhouse warming from other sources such as carbon dioxide.

 

Greenhouse Gases Reach Record Highs

Greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere have reached new record highs and show no sign of leveling off, the U.N. weather agency said.

WMO: Greenhouse Gases at All-Time High

The latest analysis of data from the WMO-GAW Global Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Network shows that the globally averaged mixing ratios of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N20) have reached new highs in 2007, with CO2 at 383.1 ppm, CH4 at 1789 ppb, and N20 at 320.9 ppb. These values are higher than pre-industrial times (before 1750) by 37 percent.

 

 

Drinking Water Shortages Loom for Half the World's People by 2080
Half the world's population could face a shortage of clean water by 2080 because of climate change, experts warned. Wong Poh Poh, a professor at the National University of Singapore, told a regional conference that global warming was disrupting water flow patterns and increasing the severity of floods, droughts and storms -- all of which reduce the availability of drinking water.


Asian Smog Masks Warming Impacts: UN
A three-kilometer thick cloud of brown soot and other pollutants hanging over Asia is darkening cities, killing thousands and damaging crops but may be holding off the worst effects of global warming, the U.N. said. This atmospheric brown cloud "has masked the true nature of global warming on our planet," United Nations Environment Program head Achim Steiner said.

 

 

Atmosphere is Ripe for Climate Disaster Now
If climate disasters are to be averted, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) must be reduced below the levels that already exist today, according to a study by of 10 scientists from the United States. The authors assert that to maintain a planet similar to that on which civilization developed, an optimum CO2 level would be less than 350 ppm -- a dramatic change from most previous studies, which suggested a danger level for CO2 is likely to be 450 ppm or higher.


Warming Trend Steepest in 5,000 Years

Research on Arctic and North Atlantic ecosystems shows the recent warming trend counts as the most dramatic climate change since the onset of human civilization 5,000 years ago.

Methane Release Tied to Arctic Melting

Scientists have found the first increase in methane levels this century -- by about 28 million tonnes since mid-2006 -- was in part due to release of gas in and near the Arctic.

 

Sudden Methane Rise Puzzles Scientists
Levels of climate-warming methane -- a greenhouse gas 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide -- rose abruptly in Earth's atmosphere last year, and scientists who reported the change don't know why it occurred. Methane has more than doubled in the atmosphere since pre-industrial times, but stayed largely stable over the last decade or so before rising in 2007.


Climate Change Outpacing IPCC Forecast -- Report

Climate change is happening much faster than the world's best scientists predicted and will wreak havoc unless action is taken on a global scale, a new report warns.

Higher Inland Temperatures Cool Coastal Areas
A team of scientists has found that as temperatures rise in California, so do pressure differences that control cool Pacific winds. That means higher temperatures inland create lower ones at the coast.



Scientists Startled By Arctic seabed Methane Releases

Scientists claim to have discovered evidence for large releases of methane into the atmosphere from frozen seabed stores off the northern coast of Siberia. A large injection of the gas - which is 21 times more potent as an atmospheric heat trap than carbon dioxide - has long been cited by climate scientists as the potential trigger for runaway global warming. But some experts have expressed caution at the claims.

Nothing "Safe" Short of Pre-industrial levels: Schellnhuber

Scientists may have to clean the atmosphere of all man-made carbon dioxide to prevent the worst impacts of global warming, one of Europe's most senior climate scientists has warned. Professor John Schellnhuber said only a return to pre-industrial levels of CO2 would be enough to guarantee a safe future for the planet, addingcurrent political targets to slow the growth in emissions and stabilise carbon levels were insufficient.

Warming Waters Intensify Hurricanes

The strongest tropical storms are becoming even stronger as the world's oceans warm, scientists have confirmed. Analysis of satellite data shows that in the last 25 years, strong cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons have become more frequent in most of the tropics.

Last Decade Warmer Than in 1300 Years

Researchers confirm that surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were warmer over the last 10 years than any time during the last 1300 years, and, if the climate scientists include the somewhat controversial data derived from tree-ring records, the warming is anomalous for at least 1700 years.

Warming Climate Intensifies Rainstorms
US and British researchers have confirmed the link between warmer climate and an increase in powerful rainstorms, according to a study  that underscores one of the challenges of global warming. The researchers even found that the increase of extreme rainfall was higher than what has been predicted in current computer models, according to the study published in the journal Science.


Watson: Prepare for a Rise of 4-degrees C

The UK should take active steps to prepare for dangerous climate change of perhaps 4C according to Robert Watson, former Clinton science adviser and former chief scientist at the World Bank.

Scientists Astounded by Speed of Prehistoric Deep Freeze
A drastic cooling of the climate in western Europe happened exactly 12,679 years ago, apparently after a shift to icy winds over the Atlantic, scientists said, giving a hint of how abruptly the climate can change. The study, of pollens, minerals and other matter deposited in annual layers at the bottom of Lake Meerfelder Maar in Germany, pinpointed an abrupt change in sediments consistent with a sudden chill over just one year.


Hansen: Oil, Coal Execs Should be Tried for "Crimes Against Humanity"

"More warming is already "in-the-pipeline," delayed only by the great inertia of the world ocean. And climate is nearing dangerous tipping points. Elements of a "perfect storm", a global cataclysm, are assembled."  

 

Scientists Amazed By Speed of Ancient Climate "Snaps"
The Northern Hemisphere briefly emerged from the last ice age some 14,700 years ago with a 22-degree-Fahrenheit spike in just 50 years, then plunged back into icy conditions before abruptly warming again about 11,700 years ago. Massive "reorganizations" of atmospheric circulation coincided with each temperature spurt, with each reorganization taking just one or two years, according to a new study.


NOAA Report Restates Warming-Driven Increase in Extreme Weather

As greenhouse-gas emissions rise, North America is likely to experience more droughts and excessive heat in some regions even as intense downpours and hurricanes pound others more often, according to a report issued yesterday by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.

Mid-Century Heating Pause Found to be Instrumental Anomaly

A US-British team of climate scientists has now found a surprisingly simple explanation for the puzzling drop in the rise of global temperatures between the 1940s and early 1970s -- a difference in the way British and US ships' crews measured the sea surface temperatures.

Report Details Breadth of Current US Climate Impacts
The rise in concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from human activities is influencing climate patterns and vegetation across the United States and will significantly disrupt water supplies, agriculture, forestry and ecosystems for decades, according to a new federal report.



Warming Seen Spawning Fewer -- but More Intense -- Hurricanes
Fewer but more intense hurricanes may form in the Atlantic Ocean as the globe warms toward the end of this century, according to a new study that counters predictions of more frequent cyclones due to climate change.


Nitrogen Build-Up Will Exascerbate Greenhouse Impacts

Scientists have warned that "reactive nitrogen" is accumulating on the planet which is linked with the greenhouse effect, smog, haze, acid rain, coastal "dead zones" and ozone depletion.

GHG Levels Unseen in 800,000 Years
Greenhouse gases are at higher levels in the atmosphere than at any time in at least 800,000 years, according to a study of Antarctic ice that extends evidence that mankind is disrupting the climate.


NASA Sees Increase in Tornadoes, Violent Storms
NASA scientists have developed a new climate model that indicates that the most violent severe storms and tornadoes may become more common as Earth's climate warms.


NAS Study Projects Major Increase in Tornadoes

Global warming could bring the USA a dramatic increase in the frequency of weather conditions that feed severe thunderstorms and tornadoes by the end of the 21st century, says a study out Monday.

Some locations could see as much as a 100% increase in the number of days that favor severe thunderstorms, says the study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Models Project a Ten-Year Pause in Warming

The Earth's temperature may stay roughly the same for a decade, as natural climate cycles enter a cooling phase, scientists have predicted. But, they add, temperatures will again be rising quickly by about 2020.

 

Humans Have Upset 600,000-Year Carbon Balance

Before humans began burning fossil fuels, there was an eons-long balance between carbon dioxide emissions and Earth's ability to absorb them, but now the planet can't keep up, scientists said.

Timeline For Irreversible Climate Change

Humanity today, collectively, must face the uncomfortable fact that industrial civilization itself has become the principal driver of global climate. If we stay our present course, using fossil fuels to feed a growing appetite for energy-intensive life styles, we will soon leave the climate of the Holocene, the world of prior human history. The eventual response to doubling preindustrial atmospheric CO2 likely would be a nearly ice-free planet.

Sun-Reflecting Aerosols Would Propel Ozone Destruction

Scientists have put forward several proposals to reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches the planet's surface, including the use of light-reflecting sulphate particles in the atmosphere and putting mirrors in orbit around the planet. But adding sulfur to the atmosphere would spark chemical reactions leading to the liberation of chlorine, a compound known to destroy ozone, the team reports online today in Science

Migrating Jet Stream Portends More Weather Extremes

The jet stream -- America's stormy weather maker -- is creeping northward and weakening, new research shows. That potentially means less rain in the already dry South and Southwest and more storms in the North.

Scientists: World Must Go "Zero Carbon" Soon

The task of cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to avert a dangerous rise in global temperatures may be far more difficult than previous research suggested, say scientists who have just published studies indicating that it would require the world to cease carbon emissions altogether within a matter of decades.

Lloyd's Research Arm Links Sea Surface Warmth to Hurricane Activity
According to new research by the Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre (BUHRC), sea surface warming contributes significantly to increased Atlantic hurricane activity.



2007 Tied for Second Hottest Year On Record
Climatologists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City have found that 2007 tied with 1998 for Earths second warmest year in a century.


Warmer Autumns Add to Carbon Burden
An international study investigating the carbon sink capacity of northern terrestrial ecosystems discovered that the duration of the net carbon uptake period (CUP) has on average decreased due to warmer autumn temperatures.


Scientists Declare 350 ppm a "Safe Level" of CO2
The concentration of carbon in the atmosphere is now about 380 parts per million and increasing by 2 parts per million each year. To stabilize Earth's climate, the concentration needs to fall to at least 350 parts per million.


NOAA Declares 2007 Fifth Warmest Year on Record

The global annual temperature -- for combined land and ocean surfaces -- for 2007 is expected to be near 58.0 F -- and would be the fifth warmest since records began in 1880. Some of the largest and most widespread warm anomalies occurred from eastern Europe to central Asia.

Chief Scientists: "Dangerous Warming" is Inevitable

Sir David King and John Schellnhuber, science advisors to the British and German governments, have told BBC News it is unlikely that levels of greenhouse gases can be kept low enough to avoid a projected temperature rise of 2C (3.6F). 

IPCC: Earth Faces Abrupt, Irreversible Changes
The Earth is hurtling toward a warmer age at a quickening pace, a Nobel-winning U.N. scientific panel said in a landmark report Saturday, warning of inevitable human suffering and the threat of species extinction.


Warming Is Cutting China's Drinking Water Supply

China is losing a million acres a year to desertification. In Dunhuang, a former Silk Road oasis in the Gobi, the resulting water shortage has become critical.

UN Declares Earth is in Code Red

Humanity is changing Earth's climate so fast and devouring resources so voraciously that it is poised to bequeath a ravaged planet to future generations, the UN warned in its most comprehensive survey of the environment. The report by UNEP says world leaders must propel the environment "to the core of decision-making" to tackle a daily worsening crisis.  

CO2 Rising Faster Than Expected Since 2000

Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere have risen 35% faster than expected since 2000, says a study. International scientists found that inefficiency in the use of fossil fuels increased levels of CO2 by 17%. The other 18% came from a decline in the natural ability of land and oceans to soak up CO2 from the atmosphere.

Warming Is Making The World Wetter

Human activity is behind the rising levels of water vapour in the lower atmosphere over the past few decades, climatologists have concluded. The rises in humidity could affect patterns of extreme storms, they warn.

Marine Fossils Confirm CO2 Role in Warming
Scientists have devised a new way to study Earth's past climate by analyzing the chemical composition of ancient marine fossils. The first tests support the view that atmospheric CO2 has contributed to dramatic climate variations in the past, and strengthen projections that human CO2 emissions could cause global warming.


Flannery: Danger Point Arrived Ahead of Schedule
The global economic boom has accelerated greenhouse gas emissions to a dangerous threshold not expected for a decade and could potentially cause irreversible climate change, said one of Australia's leading scientists. Tim Flannery said a UN international climate change report due in November will show that greenhouse gases have already reached a dangerous level.


Pachauri Hints at Lowering 2-Degree Goal
Governments may need to step up the fight against global warming to a level beyond even the toughest existing goals to help safeguard the planet, the head of the U.N. climate panel said.


Ancient Runaway Climate Change Triggered by Methane Release
Methane released from wetlands turned the Earth into a hothouse 55 million years ago, according to research that could shed light on a worrying aspect of today's climate change crisis.


IPCC: "Too Late" To Avoid Dangerous Change

A rise of two degrees centigrade in global temperatures -- the point considered to be the threshold for catastrophic climate change -- is now "very unlikely" to be avoided, the world's leading climate scientists said yesterday. The IPCC study added: The effects of climate change will be felt sooner than scientists realized and the world must learn to live with the effects.

 

Climate Forecast: A Repeat of 300 Million Years Ago

The emerging story of a global climate shift a third of a billion years ago seems to be a prequel to what climate scientists expect from the current trend in global warming. Models show that melting large to moderately-sized high latitude ice sheets resulted in a reversal of tropical trade winds and big expansions of low-latitude desert areas into what had been warm temperate forests.

NASA: Storm Severity On the Increase

As the world warms, the US will face more severe thunderstorms with deadly lightning, damaging hail and the potential for tornadoes, a trailblazing study by NASA scientists suggests. While other research has warned of broad weather changes on a large scale -- like more extreme hurricanes and droughts -- the new study predicts even smaller events like thunderstorms will be more dangerous because of global warming.

 

NOAA: 2006 was Second Hottest Year on Record Due to GHGs

Greenhouse gases likely accounted for more than half of the widespread warmth across the continental United States last year, according to a new study by four scientists at NOAA's Earth System Research Lab in Boulder, Colo. Last year's average temperature was the second highest since record-keeping began in 1895. The team found that it was very unlikely that the 2006 El Niño played any role, though other natural factors likely contributed to the unusual warmth.

Are We Destined to Become A Hurricane Planet?
If Earth is running a fever, then hurricanes like Dean and Katrina are her febrile seizures. As the rise in global temperature has accelerated over the last century, these tempestuous spasms have become more frequent and violent.


Residual CO2 Has Much Longer Lifetime
The fossil fuels we burn today may leave an atmospheric "hangover" lasting hundreds of thousands of years, which may cause enough residual warming to prevent the onset of the next ice age. The IPCC describes carbon dioxide as having a lifetime in the atmosphere of between five and 200 years before it is ultimately absorbed by the oceans. In fact, as much as one-tenth of the CO2 will linger in the air for at least 100,000 years, and perhaps much longer,


Aerosol Cooling Would Trigger Global Drought
A controversial theory proposes mimicking volcanoes to fight global warming. But throwing sulfur particles into the sky may do more harm than good, a new study says. As well as cooling the planet, the sulfur particles would reduce rainfall and cause serious global drought, a new study says.



Scientists Project New Warming Spike in Next Two Years
Natural climate variability driven by the ocean appears to have held greenhouse warming at bay the past few years, but the warming, according to the forecast, should come roaring back before the end of the decade. 


Asian Pollution Threatens Himalayan Glaciers

The haze of pollution that blankets southern Asia is accelerating the loss of Himalayan glaciers, bequeathing an incalculable bill to China, India and other countries whose rivers flow from this source, scientists warned.

Warming Drives Increase in Hurricanes

Global warming's effect on wind patterns and sea temperatures have nearly doubled the number of hurricanes a year in the Atlantic Ocean over the past century, says a new study by US scientists.

Low-level Ozone Build Up Accelerates Warming
The affects of ground-level ozone could seriously cut into crop yields and spur global warming this century, scientists reported. Ozone in the troposphere -- the lowest level of the atmosphere -- damages plants and affects their ability to absorb carbon dioxide,  whose release into the atmosphere accelerates climate change.


Scientists: GHGs Behind Record British Downpours
It's official: the heavier rainfall in Britain is being caused by climate change, a major new scientific study will reveal this week, as the country reels from summer downpours of unprecedented ferocity. More intense rainstorms across parts of the northern hemisphere are being generated by man-made global warming, the study has established for the first time ­-- an effect which has long been predicted but never before proved.  


Hansen: We are at the level of "dangerous interference"

The level of 'dangerous interference' "is much lower than has commonly been assumed. If we have not already passed the dangerous level, the energy infrastructure in place ensures that we will pass it within several decades."

Warming Progressing Three Times Faster Than Anticipated

Global warming is accelerating three times more quickly than feared, a series of startling, authoritative studies has revealed. Emissions of carbon dioxide have been rising at three times the rate in the 1990s. The Arctic ice cap is melting three times as fast - and the seas are rising twice as rapidly - as had been predicted.

Scientists: IPCC Underestimates Speed of Impacts

It used to be that climate scientists worried about how to make the public care about changes that might not happen for a century. Today they have a bigger problem: some of the changes arent waiting around that long.

"Danger Point" Looms for Humanity -- NASA
Human-made greenhouse gases have brought the Earth's climate close to critical tipping points, with potentially dangerous consequences for the planet. The warming of 0.6ºC in the past 30 years has been driven mainly by greenhouse gases, and only moderate additional climate forcing is likely to set in motion disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet and Arctic sea ice. 


Are Carbon Sinks Turning Into Carbon Sources?

Climate change change may have passed a key tipping point that could mean temperatures rising more quickly than predicted. A surge of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere in recent years is due to more greenhouse gas escaping from trees, plants and soils. Global warming was making vegetation less able to absorb the carbon pollution pumped out by human activity.

Scientists: Capacity of Earth's Sinks is Overestimated
While the continents and oceans have absorbed much of the carbon dioxide that humanity has pumped into the atmosphere so far, they won't be able to keep up with the expected rise in greenhouse-gas emissions over the next several decades. Indeed, some recent studies suggest that current scientific estimates about natural absorption are too optimistic.


Hansen: "Time's Up!"

Lead author James Hansen, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, concludes: "If global emissions of carbon dioxide continue to rise at the rate of the past decade, this research shows that there will be disastrous effects, including increasingly rapid sea level rise, increased frequency of droughts and floods, and increased stress on wildlife and plants due to rapidly shifting climate zones."  

IPCC II Details Coming Impacts in the U.S.

Chicago and Los Angeles will likely face increasing heat waves. Severe storm surges could hit New York and Boston. And cities that rely on melting snow for water may run into serious shortages. These findings about North America were released in the report finished last week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

IPCC II: Most Dire Warning Yet

An international conference of global warming scientists approved a report warning of dire threats to the Earth and to mankind  from increased hunger in Africa and Asia to the extinctions of species  unless the world adapts to climate change and halts its progress.

 

IPCC Scientists Charge Governments With Softening Report

Some sections of a grim scientific assessment of the impact of global warming on human, animal and plant life issued in Brussels yesterday were softened at the insistence of officials from China and the United States, participants in the negotiations said. The delegates removed parts of key charts highlighting devastating effects of climate change that kick in with every rise of 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit The charts have been called a "highway to extinction" because they show that with every degree of warming, the condition of much of the world worsens -- with starvation, floods and the disappearance of species.

IPCCII to Stress Climate Impact Inequity

The world's richest countries, which have contributed by far the most to the atmospheric changes linked to global warming, are already spending billions of dollars to limit their own risks from its worst consequences, like drought and rising seas. But they are spending just tens of millions of dollars on ways to limit climate and coastal hazards in the world's most vulnerable regions -- most of them close to the equator and overwhelmingly poor.

Climate Sensitivity Consistent for 420 Million Years

New calculations show that sensitivity of Earth's climate to changes in the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide has been consistent for the last 420 million years -- with each doubling of CO2 generating a temperature increase of 3* C.

Rising Temperatures Take Their Toll on US Deserts

The US Southwest has been warming for nearly 30 years. And the region is in the midst of an eight-year drought. What has convinced many scientists that the current spate of higher temperatures is not just another natural swing in the weather has been the near collapse of the sky islands and other high, formerly green havens that poke above the desert.

Scientific American: IPCC Understates Coming Changes
The IPCC summary describes the existence of global warming as "unequivocal" but leaves out a reference to an accelerated trend in this warming. By excluding statements that provoked disagreement and adhering strictly to data published in peer-reviewed journals, the IPCC has generated a conservative document that may underestimate the changes that will result from a warming world.


Winter Of 2006-7 Is Hottest On Record

Providing compelling evidence that global warming is accelerating, scientists announced Thursday that this winter was the hottest on record - and that surface temperatures around the world have been
increasing at three times the rate they were before 1976.

 

Thinning Aerosols Enhance Recent Warming

Recent observations of downward solar radiation fluxes at Earth's surface have shown a recovery from the previous decline known as global "dimming", with the "brightening" beginning around 1990. The increasing amount of sunlight at the surface profoundly affects climate and may represent certain diminished counterbalances to greenhouse gas warming, thereby making the warming trend more evident during the past decade.

IPCCII Preview: Very Grim

Hundreds of millions of people will not have enough water within a couple of decades as the harmful effects of global warming already start to appear, top scientists will say next month. At the same time, tens of millions of people will be flooded out of their homes each year as the Earth reels from rising temperatures and sea levels, according to portions of a draft of an international scientific report obtained by The Associated Press.

UN Foundation Panel: World Must Act Now

Declaring there is "no more time for delay," an international panel of scientists urged the world's nations Tuesday to stave off climate-change "catastrophe" by boosting clean-energy research and sharply cutting industrial emissions that fuel global warming.

January 2007 Hottest Ever

January of 2007 was by far the hottest January ever. The broken record was fueled by a waning El Nino and a gradually warming world. The month broke the previous record by 0.81 degrees F. although duch records are normally broken by hundredths of a degree at a time.

Spain Is New "Poster Child" of Climate Impacts

With its rising temperatures, spreading deserts, disappearing glaciers and invasion of non-native fish, Spain is fast becoming the poster-child for global warming impacts.

IPCC Fourth Science Report Portrays Bleak Future

"A broad array of scientists, including authors of the report and independent experts, said the latest analysis was the most sobering view yet of a century in which thousands of years of relatively stable climate conditions will suddenly be replaced by a new normalcy of continual change." (The New York Times)

Stern Report Lists Degrees of Impacts

Stern Report indicates implications of different temperature rises in degrees Celsius relative to pre-industrial levels.

 

Scientists Criticize Upcoming IPCC Report as Understated

The melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are a fairly recent development that has taken scientists by surprise. They don't know how to predict its effects in their computer models. But many fear it will mean the world's coastlines are swamped much earlier than most predict.

2006 Hottest Year in US Yet

The 2006 average annual temperature for the continental U.S. was the warmest on record, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

2007 May Be Hottest Year On Record

A combination of global warming and the El Niño weather system is set to make 2007 the warmest year on record with far-reaching consequences for the planet, one of Britain's leading climate experts has warned.

IPCC's Fourth Assessment Triggers Wrangling Before Its Release

The IPCC's fourth assessment report, to be published in February,  reports that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has accelerated in the past five years. It also predicts that temperatures will rise by up to 4.5 C during the next 100 years, bringing more frequent heat waves and storms. But the panel has lowered predictions of how much sea levels will rise in comparison with its last report in 2001.Climate change sceptics are expected to seize on the revised figures as evidence that action to combat global warming is less urgent.

Lovelock: Much of Earth Is Becoming Uninhabitable

The earth has a fever that could boost temperatures by 8 degrees Celsius making large parts of the surface uninhabitable and threatening billions of peoples' lives, according to British scientist James Lovelock.

Carbon Emissions Rise Sharply

The rise in humanity's emissions of carbon dioxide has accelerated sharply, according to a new analysis. The Global Carbon Project says that emissions were rising by less than 1% annually up to the year 2000, but are now rising at 2.5% per year.

Methane Emissions Seen Declining

The rise in concentrations of the greenhouse gas methane in the atmosphere has slowed down considerably in recent years, research suggests. Scientists say levels have been stable for about seven years following a steep rise during the last century.

Top Scientists Float "Artificial Aerosol" Plan To Cool Planet

Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen and leading climatologist Tom M.L. Wigley proposed putting up an "umbrella" of aerosols  to help cool the planet. The measure reflects the growing desperation in the scientific community about the build-up of atmospheric CO2.

NCAR Study Projects More Extreme Weather

The world - especially the Western United States, the Mediterranean region and Brazil - will likely suffer more extended droughts, heavy rainfalls and longer heat waves over the next century because of global warming, a new study forecasts.

Warming Will Transform New England

For those who love New England's mild summer weather, scientists have some advice: enjoy it while you can. If greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current course, Massachusetts may feel more like sultry South Carolina by century's end, researchers said on Wednesday in a report on clear signs of global warming in the US Northeast.

Drought Seen Overtaking Half the Planet By 2100

Drought threatening the lives of millions will spread across half the land surface of the Earth in the coming century because of global warming, according to new predictions from Britain's leading climate scientists

Planet's Temperature Not Exceeded Since Last Ice Age

The planet's temperature has climbed to levels not seen in about 12,000 years. The warming has also propelled  plant and animal migrationss, researchers report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Methane Releases Seen Poised to Increase

Levels of the potent greenhouse gas methane are on the rise and could accelerate global warming, scientists said Thursday. Drought in recent years reduced methane emissions from natural sources and masked the impact of methane increases from human activities.

Solar Variations Too Small To Have Influenced Climate Since 1600s

The variations measured from spacecraft since 1978 are too small to have contributed appreciably to accelerated global warming over the past 30 years. In this Review, we show that detailed analysis of these small output variations has greatly advanced our understanding of solar luminosity change, and this new understanding indicates that brightening of the Sun is unlikely to have had a significant influence on global warming since the seventeenth century.

Methane Escaping Five Times Faster Than Previously Thought

Methane -- a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide -- is being released from the permafrost at a rate five times faster than thought, according to a study being published Thursday in the journal Nature. The findings are based on new, more accurate measuring techniques. Global warming gases trapped in the soil are bubbling out of the thawing permafrost in amounts far higher than previously thought and may trigger what researchers warn is a climate time bomb.   

CO2 Rise Unprecedented in 800,000 Years

The rapid rise in greenhouse gases over the past century is unprecedented in at least 800,000 years, according to a study of the oldest Antarctic ice core which highlights the reality of climate change. Air bubbles trapped in ice for hundreds of thousands of years have revealed that humans are changing the composition of the atmosphere in a manner that has no known natural parallel.

Researchers See Disastrous Impacts from a 3-Degree Rise

More than half of the world's major forests will be lost if global temperatures rise by an average of 3C or more by the end of the century. Extreme floods, forest fires and droughts will also become more common according to the most comprehensive analysis yet of the potential effects of human-made global warming.

 

 

Spring Continues to Arrive Earlier Each Year

A Europe-wide study has provided "conclusive proof" that the seasons are changing, with spring arriving earlier each year.

Ozone-Depleting Substitutes Found to Promote Warming

The chemicals that replaced CFCs are better for the ozone layer, but do little to help global warming. These chemicals, too, act as a reflective layer in the atmosphere that traps heat like a greenhouse.

Scientists Tie Heat Waves to Climate Change

Heat waves like those that have scorched Europe and the United States in recent weeks are becoming more frequent because of global warming, say scientists who have studied decades of weather records and computer models of past, present and future climate.

US Summer Nights Get Hotter

America in recent years has been sweltering through three times more than its normal share of extra-hot summer nights, government records show. And that is a particularly dangerous trend.

US Flooding Spurs Talk of Ocean Warming from GHGs

Images of swamped homes in the U.S. Northeast deepened suspicions over global warming, giving ammunition to scientists and others who say greenhouse gas-spewing cars and factories are fueling extreme weather.

Warming Is Making Continental US Wetter

Most of the United States is getting wetter, thanks to global warming. Most of the continental United States is getting wetter while droughts are getting briefer and rarer, say scientists who have analyzed and modeled continental US stream flows and soil moisture data from 1925 to 2003.

Findings Refutes Skeptic Gray on Cause of Hurricane Strength

Global warming accounted for around half of the extra hurricane-fueling warmth in the waters of the tropical North Atlantic in 2005, while natural cycles were only a minor factor, according to a new analysis the  National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The findings were also endorsed by the American Geophysical Union and the National Science Foundation.

NRC Confirms Heating, "Hockey Stick" Study

The nation's premier science policy body on Thursday threw its weight behind controversial data and voiced a "high level of confidence" that Earth is the hottest it has been in at least 400 years, possibly even longer. A panel convened of the National Research Council told lawmakers that the Earth is running a fever and that "human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming."

Are We Entering A New Pliocene Epoch?

Researchers worry that if they cannot recall the distant climatic past, the world may be condemned to repeat it. And repeating the warmth of the early Pliocene epoch of 3 million to 4 million years ago would be a shocker. With no more carbon dioxide warming the greenhouse than today, the globe was a good 3°C warmer, and sea level was a whopping 25 meters higher. But how could such a modest stock of greenhouse gas fuel such warming? Unfortunately, no one knows.

Cleaner Air May Increase Hurricane Frequency

Cleaner air and more Atlantic hurricanes may come as a pair, according to a new study comparing rising global sea surface temperatures with sun-blocking pollution particles. The recent decline of small manmade pollution particles in the North Atlantic might be allowing hurricane activity to catch up with the effects of global warming.

Jet-Stream Changes Are Propelling Desertification

The warming of the Earth's atmosphere seems to be shoving jet streams out of their normal tracks ­ a change that could expand deserts and profoundly affect the world's weather patterns.

Australian Study Sees Climate Change Accelerating

Global warming could be happening faster than scientists had previously thought and weather extremes such as heatwaves could become common, an Australian government report said.

Feedbacks Will Fuel a Much Hotter World

Researchers quantifying the effects of earlier releases of carbon dioxide and methane project that these current feedbacks will generate temperature increases later in this century that that may be significantly higher than what current climate models  predict.

Satellite-Surface Discrepancies Reconciled

A nagging difference in temperature readings that had raised questions about global warming has been resolved, a panel of scientists reported Tuesday.

IPCC: Human Influence is "Dominant" Cause of Warming

The extent of global warming is unprecedented in the last 20,000 years and it is "very likely" that greenhouse gas forcing has been the dominant cause of the observed warming of globally averaged temperatures in the last 50 years.

King Sees 3*C Rise As Nearly Inevitable

The world is likely to suffer a temperature rise of more than 3C, says the UK government's chief scientist.  That would cause drought and famine and threaten millions of lives, said Professor David King in a report based on computer predictions.

Rate of Antarctic Warming Surprises Scientists

Air temperatures above the entire frozen continent of Antarctica have risen three times faster than the rest of the world during the past 30 years.

CO2 Output Rises Abruptly

Scientists have recorded a significant rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, pushing it to a new record level.  

CO2 levels now stand at 381 parts per million (ppm) - 100ppm above the pre-industrial average. Moreover 2005 saw one of the largest increases on record - a rise of 2.6ppm.

Jim Hansen's Very Urgent Warning

The Earth's temperature, with rapid global warming over the past 30 years, is now passing through the peak level of the Holocene, a period of relatively stable climate that has existed for more than 10,000 years. Further warming of more than one degree Celsius will make the Earth warmer than it has been in a million years.

IPCC Raises Estimates of Future Warming

The Earth's temperature could rise under the impact of global warming to levels far higher than previously predicted, according to the United Nations' team of climate experts.

Earth Is On a "Fast Track" To Climate Shift

Human activities are releasing greenhouse gases more than 30 times faster than the rate of emissions that triggered a period of extreme global warming in the Earth's past, according to an expert on ancient climates.

Warming Surpasses Any Climate Change in 1200 Years

Global warming in the past century has been greater than any other shift in the world's climate over the past 1200 years, researchers have reported. The analysis of data from tree rings, shell fossils, ice cores and temperature measurements  shows  the current warming trend is the most extensive change - warm or cold - since the time of the Vikings.

Met: "Dangerous Climate Change" Seems Inevitable

Rising concentrations of greenhouse gases may have more serious impacts than previously believed, a major scientific report has said.

The report, published by the UK government, says there is only a small chance of greenhouse gas emissions being kept below "dangerous" levels.

2005 Emerges As Hottest Year on Record

2005 was the warmest recorded on Earth's surface, and it was unusually hot in the Arctic, US space agency NASA said. All five of the hottest years since modern record-keeping began in the 1890s occurred within the last decade, according to analysis by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

CO2 Levels Unmatched for 650,000 Years

An ice core about two miles long  the oldest frozen sample ever drilled from the underbelly of Antarctica  shows that at no time in the last 650,000 years have levels of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane been as high as they are today.

Climate Scientists Worry About Potential "Tipping Points"
Many scientists say there are real risks of "tipping points" -- sudden, catastrophic changes triggered by human activities blamed for warming the planet.


Water Vapor Drives Temperature Rise in Europe

Water vapour rather than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the main reason why Europe's climate is warming, according to a new study. The scientists say that rising temperatures caused by greenhouse gases are increasing humidity, which in turn amplifies the temperature rise.

Expect Increasingly Rough Weather in US: PNAS

Extreme weather events -- including heat waves, floods and drought -- are likely to become more common over the next century in the United States because of human-generated greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study by Purdue University researchers.

2005 On Track For First Or Second Hottest Year On Record

New international climate data show that 2005 is on track to be either the first or second hottest year on record, continuing a 25-year trend of rising global temperatures.

Computer Models Seen Underestimating Weather Impacts

The impact of global warming on European weather patterns has been underestimated by computer models, according to a new report published in Nature this week.

Tropical Storms 50 Percent More Intense since 1970s

Tropical storms have become significantly more intense in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during the past 30 years.  Kerry Emanuel, an atmospheric researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reports that tropical storms' overall intensity has increased by about 50 percent since the mid-1970s.

New Satellite, Balloon Data Confirm Warming

Two independent studies have found errors in previous satellite and balloon data . A third study shows that when the errors are taken into account, the troposphere actually got warmer -- a warming trend that agrees with the warmer observed surface temperatures and conforms to predictions in recent computer models.

 

Methane Found to Pack Powerful Warming Punch

The impacts of the greenhouse gas methane on climate warming may be double the standard amount attributed to the gas by most scientists today.

 

Researchers Find Mann's Reconstruction "highly Robust"

New reconstructions over 1400-1980  in both the indirect and direct analyses demonstrate that the Mann et al. reconstruction of 1998 is highly robust.

Earth Is Net Importer of Heat

The Earth is absorbing more energy from the Sun than it is giving back into space, according to a new study by climate scientists in the US. They base their findings on computer models of climate, and on measurements of temperature in the oceans. The group describes its results as "the smoking gun that we were looking for", removing any doubt that human activities are warming the planet.

Mauna Loa CO2 Measurements Pass 380 ppm

In March, 2005, the  atmospheric CO2 level surpassed 380 ppm -- by far the highest it has been in thousands of years. While it's increasing regularly, the rise isn't always steady, as indicated by the recent spike.

CFC substitutes Fuel Climate Change

Since the Montreal Protocol went into effect in 1997, the substitutes for ozone-destroying CFCs have accounted for about five percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, said the report from the United Nations Environment Programme.

Scientists Fear Non-Linear Climate Changes

Scientists at a global warming conference say they see potential triggers for runaway climate change, but admit that when and how these notional doomsdays may be unleashed are debatable or quite unknown. The theoretical triggers are the apocalyptic side to global warming, making a lie of the common perception of it as an incremental threat that will rise predictably, like a straight line on a graph.

New Findings Reveal Much Faster Warming

The largest ever climate-change experiment reveals that scientists may have dramatically underestimated the threat of global warming.
The study by British scientists, which is published today, found the planet's global temperature could climb by between 2C and 11C because of skyrocketing levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. That more than doubles the current prediction of a 1.4C to 4.5C rise this century.

 

Drought Doubled Globally Since 1970s

The percentage of Earth's land area stricken by serious drought more than doubled from the 1970s to the early 2000s. Widespread drying occurred over much of Europe and Asia, Canada, western and southern Africa, and eastern Australia. Rising global temperatures appear to be a major factor, says the lead author of the study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

WMO Foresees Increase in Weather Extremes

Global warming is set to continue, and bring with it an increase in extreme weather such as hurricanes and droughts, scientists from the United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation warned on Wednesday. The year 2004 is set to finish as the fourth-warmest since record-keeping began in 1861, fitting a pattern that has placed nine of the past 10 years among the warmest on record, the WMO said in its annual global climate report.

Hadley Centre Foresees Killer Heat Waves

By 2050 heatwaves like that of 2003, which killed 15,000 in Europe and pushed British temperatures above 38C (100F) for the first time, will seem "unusually cool", the Hadley Centre for Climate Change says. The Centre  estimates that average temperatures will rise by 3.5C, well above the 2C which the EU says is the limit to avoid catastrophic global warming.

2004 on Track to be Fourth Hottest Year On Record

October 2004 was the warmest October since record keeping began in 1880. February was the second hottest and March the third hottest on record. The average global temperature for the first 10 months of the year-14.57 degrees Celsius (58.22 degrees Fahrenheit)-makes 2004 the fourth warmest year on record.

Scientists Identify Potential Runaway Climate Feedbacks

When the world warms, key ecosystems may be tipped out of balance, creating a whole new set of climatic challenges. Vast icesheets may melt, sea levels will rise and, faced with a new climate, species will have to adapt, move or perish. Yet the precise details of how any of it will happen are unknown.  Climate scientists say they have identified a dozen weak links around the world - regions where global warming could bring about the sudden collapse of vital ecosystems, the effects of which will be felt far afield.

Accelerating Rate of Climate Change Dismays Scientists

Recent storms, droughts and heat waves are probably being caused by global warming, which means the effects of climate change are coming faster than anyone had feared, climate experts said on Thursday. Ice is melting faster than anyone predicted in the Antarctic and Greenland, ocean currents are changing and the seas are warming, the experts said.

"Carbon 'reaching danger' levels" -- UK Science Adviser

The UK government's leading scientist says levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere already represent a danger. Professor Sir David King told a London audience the world had to adapt to prepare for significant changes ahead, and also to reduce greenhouse gases. He said climate change was "the most serious issue facing us this century and beyond", needing global solutions.

Accelerating Rise of CO2 Frightens Scientists

The rate at which global warming gases are accumulating in the atmosphere has taken a sharp leap upwards, leading to fears that the devastating effects of climate change may hit the world even sooner than has been predicted.

Scientists Foresee Stronger Hurricanes

Global warming is likely to produce a significant increase in the intensity snd rainfall of hurricanes in coming decades, according to the most comprehensive computer analysis done so far. Following the battering of the US by Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, weather trackers are sounding the alarm.  The arrival of hurricanes like Charley and Frances within weeks of each other is a rare anomaly, but some meteorologists say more storms like Frances -- both very intense and very large -- are possible.

Scientists Warn of Rapid Cascades of Natural Systems

The world has barely begun to recognise the danger of setting off rapid and irreversible changes in some crucial natural systems, a scientist says. Professor John Schellnhuber says the most important environmental issues for humans are among the least understood.

Researchers See Stronger, More Lethal Heat Waves

Heat waves like those that have hit Paris and Chicago in recent years are likely to get worse, roasting more and more cities with ever-higher temperatures, climate researchers predicted Thursday. The forecast means misery for many, and hotter weather can affect crops, drive up fuel prices, and can kill the old and weak. The heat wave that hit France a year ago killed an estimated 15,000 people.A similar heat wave that hit the Midwest last year damaged the corn and soy crops, and 739 people died in a heat wave that broiled Chicago in 1995.

Study Shows Spring Arriving Earlier in Boston

No need to journey to the Arctic to find evidence of global warming: Venture to Boston's Arnold Arboretum, where flowering trees like dogwoods and magnolias have been blooming more than a week earlier than a century ago. In a paper to be published by the American Journal of Botany this month, researchers document that spring-flowering trees and shrubs bloomed, on average, eight days earlier from 1980 to 2002 than they did from 1900 to 1920.

Absent climate change, a good 15,000-year forecast

Weather for about the next 15,000 years should be warm and stable -- barring human interference -- according to scientists.

Methane "Belch" May Have Triggered Early Warming

A vast belch of methane gas from beneath the North Atlantic 55 million years ago may have warmed the planet and hold clues to threats from an even faster modern surge in greenhouse gases, scientists said.

New Satellite Data Unequivocal About Warming

Scientists are claiming to have found compelling new evidence for global warming, finally demolishing the argument of sceptics who have denied the phenomenon is real. New analysis of satellite data has revealed that temperatures in a critical part of the atmosphere are rising much faster than previously thought, strengthening the worldwide consensus that the earth is warming up.

Modern Climate Found More Sensitive To Changes

Earth's climate system is more sensitive to changes now than it was millions of years ago, new research published this week in the journal "Nature" has found.

Wetter World May Slow Warming

Australian scientists have found the Earth may be more resilient to global warming than first thought, and they say a warmer world means a wetter planet, encouraging more plants to grow and soak up greenhouse gases.

Arctic Melt May Dry U.S. West Coast

Cities and towns along the west coast of the US could be suffering from a serious water shortage by 2050, thanks to global warming. As Arctic sea ice melts, annual rainfall may drop by as much as 30 per cent from Seattle to Los Angeles, and inland as far as the Rocky Mountains.

CO2 Level Approaches 380 parts per million

Carbon dioxide, the gas largely blamed for global warming, has reached record-high levels in the atmosphere after growing at an accelerated pace in the past year. Average readings at the Mauna Loa Observatory, where carbon dioxide density peaks each northern winter, hovered around 379 parts per million compared with about 376 a year ago.

Methane from Thawing Permafrost Up 20-60 percent Since 1970

The disapparance of permafrost in the bogs of subarctic Sweden has led to significant changes in the vegetation and  a subsequent increase in emission of the greenhouse gas methane. Methane is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. At one site, researchers found an increase in methane emissions of from 20 to 60 percent over 1970 levels.

Researcher: Less Water Vapor May Lessen Warming

Work by a New Mexico researcher suggests global warming may be less severe than some predictions based on the build-up of atmospheric water vapor. But the research also undercuts an argument made by global warming skeptics that a lack of water vapor could cool the planet.

Warming Retards Ozone Hole Recovery

The thinning of the ozone layer over the Arctic could be much worse than we thought, because of a side-effect of global warming. If the upper reaches of the Arctic atmosphere get colder - a predicted consequence of climate change - then the rate of ozone depletion could be three times greater than currently forecast.

Carbon Build-up Thins Earth's Outer Atmosphere

Scientists have found strong new evidence that carbon dioxide, the main smokestack and tailpipe emission linked to global warming, is cooling and shrinking the atmosphere's outermost layers in ways that could aid as well as endanger space activities. The average density of the air in the region more than 60 miles up -- just a trillionth of that near the surface -- has dropped 10 percent over the last 36 years, and it could decline by a total of 50 percent by the end of the century, scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington report.

2003 Tied for Second Hottest Year

2003 tied for the world's second hottest year, according to new federal government data released Thursday. In what meteorologists say is new evidence that global warming is real and worsening, the world's average temperature last year was 58.03 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. That's 1.03 degrees warmer than the 124-year world average.

Climate Change Beyond Doubt: Karl, Trenberth Say

There can be no doubt that global warming is real and is being caused by people, two top U.S. government climate experts said.Industrial emissions are a leading cause, they say - contradicting critics, already in the minority, who argue that climate change could be caused by mostly natural forces. The likely result is more frequent heat waves, droughts, extreme precipitation events, and related impacts, e.g., wildfires, heat stress, vegetation changes, and sea-level rise.

New Satellite Findings Confirm Warming

Scientists at the University of Maryland and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said they believe satellite measurements of the temperature of the middle atmosphere show a warming trend of about one-fourth of a degree Celsius per decade since 1978. That's close to the trends predicted in some computer models of global warming and reported by studies of ground-based thermometer records.

New Satellite Studies Confirm Warming

For nearly a decade, critics who dispute global warming have pointed to a single source of data to prove climate change isn't real: satellite measurements of the atmosphere's temperature. But a new analysis of satellite-based temperatures has thrown doubt onto that conclusion. The new inquiry shows significant warming of the upper atmosphere. The temperature rise is nine times larger than shown in previous studies and meshes more closely with other global warming findings, like melting glaciers, warming oceans and, perhaps most importantly, computer models of global climate.

Hansen Affirms Warming Role of Soot

Soot mostly from diesel engines is blocking snow and ice from reflecting sunlight, which is contributing to "near worldwide melting of ice" and as much as a quarter of all observed global warming, top NASA scientists say. James Hansen, director of National Aeronautic and Space Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and Nazarenko, a staff associate there, found soot is twice as potent as carbon dioxide in changing global surface air temperatures in the Arctic and the Northern Hemisphere.

New Drilling Techniques Stabilize Methane Growth

After a 200-year rise driven mainly by human activities, atmospheric levels of methane, the second most important greenhouse gas, have stopped growing, scientists are reporting. Climate experts said the stabilization of methane, though probably temporary, is important evidence that steps to curb emissions could slow global warming even as disputes persist over what to do about carbon dioxide, the dominant greenhouse gas.

Satellite Findings Support Surface Warming Record

One of the last gaps in the evidence pointing to a human cause for global warming appears to be closing. A re-examination of 24 years of data from weather satellites has found that temperatures are rising in the lower layer of the atmosphere, called the troposphere, at a rate that is consistent with what has been measured at the earth's surface.

Models Detect Warming in U.S.

Climate change caused by human activity has been detected on a local level, an international group of scientists says. The researchers compared temperatures in North America between 1900 and 1999 with what one might expect if man had - and had not - had an influence. In the last 50 years, the rise in temperature is just what one would predict if man-made greenhouse gases were having an impact.

Stronger Antarctic Winds Linked To Ozone Depletion

Over the past 40 years, climate has warmed over much of the Southern Hemisphere. The circumpolar westerly winds have also increased in strength, as a result of increasing atmospheric pressure at mid-latitudes and decreasing pressure and temperatures at high latitudes. These observed changes in Southern Hemisphere climate at high latitudes have a distinct seasonal structure, with largest amplitude in late spring and summer. Now new research indicates they may be caused by stratospheric ozone depletion over Antarctica in spring.

Methane Contribution to Warming Higher Than Estimated

Oil and gas drilling across much of the Southwest produces far more methane emissions linked to global warming than previously realized.
Researchers found about twice as much methane as expected, suggesting the United States and other nations have grossly underestimated global releases of the greenhouse gas.

Tighter Polar Winds Linked to Australian Drought

Australia may be facing a permanent drought because of an accelerating vortex of winds whipping around the Antarctic that threatens to disrupt rainfall, scientists. Spinning faster and tighter, the 100 mile an hour jetstream is pulling climate bands south and dragging rain from Australia into the Southern Ocean, they say. They attribute the phenomenon to global warming and loss of the ozone layer over Antarctica.

Reconstuction: Earth Warmest in 2,000 Years

The earth is warmer now than it has been at any time in the past 2,000 years, the most comprehensive study of climatic history has revealed. Confirming the worst fears of environmental scientists, the newly published findings are a blow to sceptics who maintain that global warming is part of the natural climatic cycle rather than a consequence of human industrial activity.

 

Researchers Plumb Ice Age Riddles

What caused the ice ages that have punctuated our planet's history for the past 2 million years? We badly need to know, a recent workshop of the world's top climate scientists concluded, because it could help us predict how our planet will respond to climate change in the coming decades. The answer "may help us decide if we are pushing the system to the extent that we risk a catastrophe," the conference concluded.

WMO: Climate Change Drives Weather Extremes

In an astonishing announcement on global warming and extreme weather, the World Meteorological Organisation signalled last night that the world's weather is going haywire.In a startling report, the WMO, which normally produces detailed scientific reports and staid statistics at the year's end, highlighted record extremes in weather and climate occurring all over the world in recent weeks, from Switzerland's hottest-ever June to a record month for tornadoes in the United States - and linked them to climate change.

GHGs Implicated in Pressure Changes

Greenhouse gas increases already blamed for global warming also may be shifting wind and rainfall patterns in the Northern Hemisphere by changing the atmospheric pressure, according to a new study.The research suggests that pressure changes account for increased rainfall in the Pacific Northwest and Britain, warmer winters in France, and drier weather in Spain. "It will probably make winters milder in most parts of the Northern Hemisphere," said Nathan Gillett of the University of Victoria in British Columbia, who led the study published in the journal Nature.

Tropopause Moving Higher from Warming

Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have discovered another fingerprint of human effects on global climate. Recent research has shown that increases in the height of the tropopause over the past two decades are directly linked to ozone depletion and increased greenhouse gases. This research undercuts claims by greenhouse skeptics that no warming has occurred during the last two decades. Tropopause height provides independent evidence of the reality of recent warming of the troposphere.

2002 replaces 2001 As Second Warmest Year

2002 has been the second warmest since 1860, extending a quarter-century pattern of accelerated global warming linked to greenhouse gas emissions, United Nations scientists said on Tuesday. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), a United Nations agency, said that 1998 remained the hottest year on record, with 2002 surpassing last year as the next warmest. The 10 warmest years had all occurred since 1987, nine since 1990.

Mountain Snow Buildup Shows Rapid Warming in Western Canada

Scientists in Canada say they have found evidence that the west of the country has warmed significantly over the last 150 years. Tthe evidence comes from a study of snow accumulation on Canada's highest mountain. The build-up of snow they have detected there has been most marked over the last decade. The scientists say their findings are consistent with other research suggesting the Earth is warming.

1997 Indonesian Fires Emitted 2.6 Billion Tons of CO2

Wildfires that scorched parts of Indonesia in 1997 spewed as much carbon into the atmosphere as the entire planet's biosphere removes from it in a year, shows new research published this week. The fires, which destroyed thousands of forest acres and left peat bogs smoldering for months, released as much as 2.6 billion metric tons of carbon - mostly in the form of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) - into the atmosphere.

Is Warming Spawing Ice Meteorites?

A Spanish scientist says global warming may be to blame for giant blocks of ice which fall from clear skies and rip gaping holes in cars and houses. Jesus Martinez-Frias fears the formation of these hailstone-like blocks on clear days could be a worrying symptom of climate change.

Soot Abatement Could Slow Climate Change

Black carbon soot from coal burning, diesel engines, open fires, and other sources is contributing to global warming and climate change in China and India, researchers report. In a study appearing in Friday's issue of the Science magazine, researchers Surabi Menon and James Hansen said:"If our interpretation is correct, then reducing the amount of black carbon or soot may help diminish the intensity of floods in the south and droughts in the northern areas of China, in addition to having human health benefits."

British Note "Muddled" Seasons

British seasons are becoming increasingly muddled, say conservationists. Spring was three weeks early this year and autumn is likely to be late. Said Dr.Tim Sparks of the CEH: "The majority of climate scientists would agree that there are already signs of a warming climate and this is having a knock-on effect on our plants and animals."

2002 On Track for Record Heat

The first six months of the year have been the second warmest ever and average global temperatures in 2002 could be the highest ever recorded, British weather experts said yesterday.


Are Northern Aerosols Fueling African Drought?

New research indicates that air pollution from North America and Europe has exacerbated drought in countries south of the Sahara. There are also warnings that growing industrialisation in India and China is likely to create the same problems on the Indian subcontinent – with potentially disastrous effects for millions more people. According to a report in New Scientist magazine, climate modelling studies by scientists in Australia and Canada have fingered the clouds of sulphur poured out by vehicles and power stations for pushing the Saharan rain-belt south.

Hadley Center: Rate of Warming is Accelerating

Planet earth is warming up faster than previously expected. Dying forests, expanding deserts and rising sea levels would wreak havoc to human and animal lives sooner than anticipated as global warming was accelerating, said Geoff Jenkins, head of the Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research.


The World Faces A Wet Future

The forecast for central and northern Europe is for more extremely wet winters over the next 100 years, thanks to global warming and rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2). In a separate report in Nature, researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey warned of the possibility of more great floods in very large river basins around the globe over the next 100 years. "We find that the frequency of great floods increased substantially during the 20th century," they said in the report, adding the trend was likely to continue.

2001 Second Hottest Year on Record

The Earth's temperature in the year 2001 is expected to be the second highest since global records began 140 years ago, the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday, more proof of global warming caused by humans. The World Meteorological Organization said the warming temperatures led to an increase in the severity and frequency of storms and droughts and other unusual weather conditions. "Temperatures are getting hotter, and they are getting hotter faster now than at any time in the past," said Michel Jarraud, the organization's deputy secretary-general.

Scientists Warn of Abrupt Climate Snap

Releases of carbon dioxide and other so-called ''greenhouse gases'' could trigger an abrupt and dramatic change in global temperatures that governments are unprepared to cope with. In a report released yesterday in Washington by the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences, a panel of 11 scientists examined the possibility of abrupt climate change, in which small events can bring on rapid and great consequences.

Volcanic Debris Masks Warming

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have discovered that large volcanic eruptions cooled the lower layers of the atmosphere over the past 20 years, masking the effects of global warming. This research undercuts claims by greenhouse skeptics that no warming has occurred during the last two decades. These claims are based on satellite measurements of temperatures in the lower troposphere, which show little or no warming since the beginning of the satellite record in 1979.

Scientists See 2018 Deadline for Decarbonizing Half the World's Energy

Researchers say world needs to be drawing half its energy from non-carbon sources by 2018 to avoid a quadrupling of atmospheric carbon levels.

Radiation Waves Show Marked Jump in CO2, Methane Emissions

Scientists have dispelled any lingering doubts about the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere with new evidence from satellites orbiting the Earth. New sets of data taken 27 years apart from two satellites orbiting the Earth have now provided the first observational evidence from space of a rise in greenhouse gases.

IPPC II: Most of Earth's People Will Be Climate 'Losers'

Tropical island paradises and glistening Alpine skiing retreats may be lost to future generations, while melting ice caps in polar regions could unleash climate changes that would continue for centuries, according to a U.N. report released Feb, 19, 2001.


IPCC: Climate Changing Faster Than Projected

In the most forceful warning yet on the threat of global warming, an international panel of hundreds of scientists issued a report predicting brutal droughts, floods and violent storms across the planet over the next century because air pollution is causing surface temperatures to rise faster than anticipated, according to reports from Reuters, the Associated Press, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Atmospheric Hydroxyl Loss Troubles Scientists

Scientists say they have detected wide swings and, most recently, a sharp drop in atmospheric concentrations of chemicals that naturally purge the air of many kinds of contaminants and methane, a powerful heat-trapping greenhouse gas. The scientists suspect that the decline is related to human activity.

Climate Changing 50% Faster than Previously Thought

Global warming is likely to take place 50 per cent faster and result in much more damage than previously thought, according to remarkable new computer predictions by British scientists. The new scenario implies a grim future for billions of people around the globe, with even more damaging impacts than have so far been expected in terms of droughts, extreme weather events such as hurricanes, rainstorms and flooding, and sea-level rise.

IPCC: More Warming Than Previously Thought

Global warming may boost world temperatures by up to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the 21st century, a figure substantially higher than previous estimates,according to a group of climate scientists sponsored by the United Nations.Moreover,"there is now stronger evidence for human influence on global climate," the scientists concluded in their preliminary report, which was distributed to more than 100 governments this week for review.

Ice Cores Show Very Rapid Past Warming In Antarctica

SYDNEY - The discovery in a core of ancient polar ice of evidence of a sudden Antarctic temperature rise thousands of years ago has added fuel to the debate on global warming. Scientists working on an ice core taken several miles beneath the surface found the first evidence of rapid warming in the Antarctic. It suggests a temperature spike of around four degrees Celsius took place in the south pole region over about a decade 19,000 years ago. "That's a significant temperature change (over) about a decade... Pretty phenomenal," said Dr David Etheridge, a scientist with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Heavy Climate Impacts Forecast for Southern Europe
Northern Europe and Britain can expect more flooding and torrential rains in the years to come but southern Europe will bear the brunt of the impact of global warming with water shortages, forest fires and desertification.

Carbon Concentrations Are Overwhelming Natural Sinks

With current atmospheric carbon concentrations at a level not seen for 420,000 years -- and with the carbon-absorption capacity of deep oceans diminishing and the limited capacity of terrestrial carbon sinks, humanity must come up with a large-scale systems approach to reducing carbon. Natural sinks are unable to assimilate human-generated carbon dioxide.

WMO sees Climate Change Driving Asian Floods, Droughts

Heavy rains and flooding in southern parts of Asia this year coupled with drought across swathes of Central Asia may be a sign of more profound climate change, according to a top U.N. weather expert.

Science Projects Increasingly Extreme Weather

As the global climate changes, extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, heat waves, heavy rainfall, tropical storms and hurricanes are expected to increase. At the same time, extreme weather events have had increasing impact on human health, welfare, and financial losses. This trend is likely to become more intense in the years to come.

Research: Soot May Be A Potent Climate Force

Soot, the familiar black residue that coats fireplaces and darkens truck exhaust, may be a leading cause of global warming. A study in the current issue of the journal Nature indicates that soot may be the second biggest contributor to global warming - just behind the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Study Reduces Uncertainties of Near-Term Warming

Forecasts of climate change are inevitably uncertain. It is essential to quantify the risk of significant departures from the predicted response to a given emission scenario.We expect global mean temperatures in the decade 2036–46 to be 1–2.5 K (1.8 to 4.5 degrees F.) warmer than in pre-industrial times under a 'business as usual' emission scenario. This range is relatively robust to errors in the models' climate sensitivity, rate of oceanic heat uptake or global response to sulphate aerosols as long as these errors are persistent over time.

Cut Methane, CFCs, Soot First, Hansen Urges

An influential expert on global warming who for nearly 20 years has pressed countries to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases now says the quickest way to slow warming is to cut other heat-trapping greenhouse gases first.

WWF Study Confirms Increase of Extreme Events

We conclude that the effects of emissions of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases on the global climate are becoming increasingly visible. This includes changes in temperature, precipitation, sea level rise, atmospheric circulation patterns, and ecosystems. For many areas on Earth these changes are becoming manifest through changes in the frequency and the intensity of extreme weather events. We conclude with reasonable but no absolute confidence that human induced climate change is now affecting the geographic pattern, the frequency, and the intensity of extreme weather events.

Earth Warms by 3 Degrees C per Century Since 1976

The Earth's surface is warming at an "unprecedented rate" that was not expected to be seen until well into the 21st century. Throughout much of the 20th century, warming occurred at a rate of just over 1 degree per century. But since 1976, warming has occurred at a rate of "nearly 4 degrees per century." According to Tom Karl, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration climatologist who led the study, the sudden spike may indicate a "change point" at which the Earth's surface begins warming at a faster rate.

Study: 75 percent of Warming Due to Human Activity

A new analysis of the climate of the last 1,000 years suggests that human activity is the dominant force behind the sharp global warming trend seen in the 20th century. The study, by Dr. Thomas J. Crowley, a geologist at Texas A&M University, found that natural factors, like fluctuations in sunshine or volcanic activity, were powerful influences on temperatures in past centuries. But he found that they account for only 25 percent of the warming since 1900. The lion's share, he said, can be attributed to human influences, particularly to rising levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping "greenhouse gases" that come from the burning of fuels and forests.

IPCC Strengthens Findings of "Human" Impact on Climate

For the past several years, an international panel of climate scientists has been testing alternatives to the idea that people are affecting global climate. But none of those factors fit the past century's observed warming as well as the explanation they suggested in 1995: an increase in greenhouse gases generated by human activity. So last week, the group, the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released the draft of a new report concluding "that there has been a discernible human influence on global climate" -- the strongest official pronouncement yet that human-induced warming is real.

NRC study Affirms Warming is Real

A panel of scientists reviewing discrepancies between surface and upper-level temperatures affirms that the warming of the Earth is real and that its rate is increasing. The warming trend in global-mean surface temperatures over the past two decades ''is undoubtedly real and is substantially greater than the average rate of warming during the 20th century,'' said the 11-member panel of the National Academy of Sciences.

US,UK Scientists Warn Situation is "Critical"

In a remarkable joint statement, Britain's chief meteorologist and a top official of NOAA warned that global warming is now changing the climate rapidly and that humanity faces a "critical" situation.

Heating Slows Ozone Recovery

The protective ozone layer that shields the Earth from the sun's radiation may not be recovering from depletion it has suffered over the Arctic region as quickly as scientists once thought.More polar stratospheric clouds, which have been known to accelerate ozone loss, have been forming above the North Pole, according to a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center.

Forest Fires Cut Rainfall

Smoke from forest fires may reduce rainfall, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports. Observations last year led NASA scientists to determine that smoke shuts down normal rain producing processes in tropical clouds.

Health-Threatening Heat and Humidity Rises
Extreme summer heat and humidity of the kind most threatening to health have become more frequent in the United States over the last half century, two Federal researchers say. According to their study, in the Dec. 10, 1998 issue of the journal Nature, the frequency of extremely hot, humid days and of heat waves lasting several days increased substantially from 1949 to 1995. In terms of the threat to health, however, another finding was especially significant: The increase in heat stress was greater at night than in the daytime.


Rising Temperatures Bring Earlier Springtimes
Spring is now arriving a week earlier in the Northern Hemisphere than it did twenty years ago and rising atmospheric temperatures are the most likely cause, according to researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.


Earth Is Warmest in 12 Centuries
The warming of the Earth in this century is without precedent in at least 1,200 years and cannot be fully explained by any known combination of natural forces, one of the federal government"s top climate scientists said.


Small Warming At Higher Levels Buoys Contrarians

Contrarians cite low degree of upper-level warming to counter prevailing scientific confirmations of human-induced atmospheric heating.

1999 Second Hottest Year in US

Temperatures in the United States will finish 1999 as the second-warmest on record since 1900, topped only by last year's mark. Americans will have experienced an average for 1999 of 55.7 degrees Fahrenheit. This follows 1998's record high of 56.4 degrees.

Warming Changes Weather Patterns

Scientists looking for signs of global warming should spend more time scrutinizing Earth's weather circulation patterns, a new study suggests.Researchers who studied northern winters since mid-century found that a weather pattern favoring typically milder winters was two to three times more likely to arise in the mid-1990s than around 1950.

Models Project 40% Increase in US Precipitation
Carbon dioxide emissions over the next century could increase wintertime precipitation in the U.S. Southwest and Great Plains by 40% as global average temperature rises 3 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius), according to latest results from a new climate system model developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research by NCAR, university, and other laboratory scientists. Reducing the buildup of carbon dioxide concentrations over the next century by one half largely dries up the extra rain and snow and slows the global temperature rise to 2 degrees F (1.5 degrees C).

Natural forces do not explain post-war heating

Temperature changes over the twentieth century cannot be explained by any combination of natural variability and natural forcings alone, according to a team of British scientists. While solar forcing may have contributed to the temperature changes early in the century, the warming since the 1940s is due definitely to human activities, according to findings published in the June 10, 1999 issue of the journal Nature.

Researchers Confirm Millenium Finding

Researchers released a report strongly suggesting that the 1990s were the warmest decade of the millennium, with 1998 the warmest year so far. The researchers also found that the warming in the 20th century counters a 1,000-year-long cooling trend, which makes the finding even more troublesome.

1997 Warmest Year in last 600
1997 was the warmest the world has experienced, going
back at least to the century before Christopher Columbus sailed.The new findings provide the clearest and most dramatic
evidence that the world is experiencing global warming caused by human activity.



1998 Called Hottest Year of Millenium
Based on studies of indirect evidence like the annual rings of trees, Dr. Philip Jones believes 1998 to be not only the warmest year in the thermometer record, but also the warmest year of the millennium.


Satellite Readings Confirm Warming
The two-decade record of satellite data has been distorted by the inevitable decay, or lowering, of the satellites' orbits as they encounter atmospheric resistance. Once this error is corrected,the satellite record shows the atmosphere has become warmer.


Rising Low Temperatures
The range between daytime high temperatures and nighttime low temperatures is decreasing in much of the world -- a signature of "greenhouse" warming.


Heat-Enhancing Vapor Increases in Upper Atmosphere
NOAA researchers announced in Nature in March, 1995, they had found evidence of enhanced atmospheric heating in the form of "significantly increased" amounts of water vapor in the lower stratosphere


GHG's Swamp Influence of Sun on Climate

 Changes in global average temperatures and of the seasonal cycle are strongly coupled to the concentration of atmospheric CO₂. I estimate transfer functions from changes in atmospheric CO₂ and from changes in solar irradiance to hemispheric temperatures that have been corrected for the effects of precession. They show that changes from CO₂ over the last century are about three times larger than those from changes in solar irradiance. The increase in global average temperature during the last century is at least 20 times the SD of the residual temperature series left when the effects of CO₂ and changes in solar irradiance are subtracted.

UN Sees Doubling of Heat Deaths in World's Cities by 2020

Deaths from heatwaves in big cities worldwide are expected to double over the next two decades if nothing is done to curb global warming, the United Nations weather agency said yesterday.