Climate News Articles Archive Page 9 from Mon 04 Apr 2011 to Wed 27 Apr 2011

Driest March for 50 years in UK prompts fears of summer drought

Posted Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:07:00 GMT by Laura Brown

A drop in rainfall in March means water companies may be forced to bring in restrictions in the summer. Parts of the country had as little as 2mm of rain last month prompting warnings of potential droughts during the summer months. The dry month has led to a depletion in reservoir levels.

Driest March for 50 years in UK prompts fears of summer drought

Ozone Hole Over the Arctic is of Record Proportions

Posted Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:31:00 GMT by Mike Campbell

The phenomenon of a ''hole'' in the ozone blanket that covers the earth at polar latitudes was first discovered in 1985 by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey. The ''hole'' was a cylinder of the atmosphere, forming over polar regions, where the level of ozone in the atmospheric column was depleted.

Ozone Hole Over the Arctic is of Record Proportions

Geoengineering is a leap from the fire into the frying pan

Posted Sat, 23 Apr 2011 08:47:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

Recent geoengineering conferences have raised the profile of how we might tackle global warming with a Plan B - finding ways to cool the planet down, whilst trying to agree on how to cut those pesky CO2 emissions. But could the Plan B of geoengineering be a dangerous distraction that ultimately locks us into a series of even greater risks?

Geoengineering is a leap from the fire into the frying pan

Sea cow teeth point to a wetter Eocene and a 'greenhouse earth'

Posted Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:02:01 GMT by Martin Leggett

Sea cow teeth from 50 million years ago are helping scientists to flesh out the climate of the earth during the Eocene, a time when greenhouse conditions reined supreme. Their paper, published today in Science, confirms that very wet conditions extended right down to the tropics, where rainfall rates were much greater than that seen today.

Sea cow teeth point to a wetter Eocene and a 'greenhouse earth'

Ozone hole's long reach brings climate change to the tropics

Posted Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:00:02 GMT by Martin Leggett

The ozone hole over Antarctica could be causing the tropics to have wetter summers, increasing flooding and landslide risks, according to recent research published today in Science. A team from Columbia University has found that the ozone hole is helping to shift the jet streams south, making parts of the tropics much rainier than they were before. The results imply it is not just greenhouse gases that can change the climate.

Ozone hole's long reach brings climate change to the tropics

Rapid increase in ice loss from the Canadian Arctic

Posted Wed, 20 Apr 2011 18:00:00 GMT by Louise Murray

The vast Canadian archipelago of Arctic islands, the territory of Nunavut, covers an area the size of western Europe. New research shows that the melting ice caps and glaciers there play a much greater role in global sea level rise than previously believed - 1mm in only 6 years.

Rapid increase in ice loss from the Canadian Arctic

Arctic coasts slipping away

Posted Sun, 17 Apr 2011 23:00:00 GMT by Louise Murray

A quarter of the Arctic's permafrost coastline is suffering from erosion due to climate change. The impact on settlements, shipping, oil and gas installations and coastal infrastructure is likely to grow. As ice free periods increase due to global warming, there is a direct effect on the fragile polar coastline which is largely composed of frozen permafrost.

Arctic coasts slipping away

Shifting from pasture to sugarcane cools Brazilian cerrado

Posted Sun, 17 Apr 2011 17:01:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

Sugarcane in Brazil's cerrado can have a cooling double whammy. It helps to power private transport, with cane ethanol that has fewer greenhouse gas emissions - and now it has been shown to potentially help cool the local climes too. A paper to be published in Nature Climate Change, has measured the effects of switching from other crops and cattle to sugarcane - and the dense thickets of cane are better at reflecting sunlight, and cooling through water loss.

Shifting from pasture to sugarcane cools Brazilian cerrado

Damaged coastal wetlands means bad news for our climate

Posted Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:39:01 GMT by Ruth Hendry

A new World Bank report has found that drainage and degradation of coastal wetlands leads to decreased carbon sequestration and increased amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If coastal wetlands are drained, for example to convert the land for agricultural use, they emit large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere

Damaged coastal wetlands means bad news for our climate

Research casts light on planet's future

Posted Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:03:00 GMT by John Dean

The study of fossilised mollusks could give scientists an invaluable insight into the way the world will respond to climate change. Researchers at Californian university UCLA say that examining the fossils from 3.5 million years ago has allowed them to build a picture of how the world is reacting to current levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a key contributor to global climate change.

Research casts light on planet's future

West Antarctica gets warmed from tropics via 'Rossby waves'

Posted Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:11:02 GMT by Martin Leggett

A long train of low-and-high pressure areas, known as Rossby waves, are helping to channel increasing warmth in the equatorial Pacific over to the Antarctic - according to research in Nature Geoscience. That is also producing an increase in warming in Western Antarctica, which contains vast amounts of water locked in its thick ice-caps. Melting here could pump 15 feet of sea-level rise out across the globe.

West Antarctica gets warmed from tropics via 'Rossby waves'

Cities ill-prepared for climate change dangers

Posted Sat, 09 Apr 2011 15:19:01 GMT by Martin Leggett

Despite containing half the world's population, and being particularly vulnerable to climate change, most cities are failing to prepare themselves for the anticipated risks. That's the conclusion of a report in this month's Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. The author concludes that a short-term pressures are swamping the long-term planning needed to safeguard cities from events such as tidal-flood surges or heat-waves.

Cities ill-prepared for climate change dangers

The world is getting windier

Posted Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:27:00 GMT by Laura Brown

Australian researchers discover the world is getting windier and waves higher. Using five techniques to independently measure the figures, they found the speeds of the fastest winds have increased by around half a percent. The height of the biggest waves has risen by between a quarter and half a percent.

The world is getting windier

Leaf rot slows after droughts, hindering plant growth

Posted Wed, 06 Apr 2011 12:25:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

With hotter, driers summers, tree leaves don't only shrivel - they produce more tannins, which changes the way that they rot over the autumn. New research published in New Phytologist suggests this subdues plant growth in the drought's aftermath, so extending the knock-back from dry-period. It also causes subtle inter-plays in the carbon cycle, which have yet to be teased apart.

Leaf rot slows after droughts, hindering plant growth

Arctic ozone hole moving south

Posted Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:37:00 GMT by Louise Murray

Unusual atmospheric conditions during the last Arctic winter have opened a massive hole in the ozone layer and that hole is extending into the more densely populated latitudes of northern Europe. Ozone depleted air masses are moving south from the Arctic and have reached Finland. They are expected to move as far east as the Russian-Chinese border and perhaps as far south as the Mediterranean.

Arctic ozone hole moving south

Patagonia glaciers now melting ten times faster

Posted Mon, 04 Apr 2011 11:50:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

A new study, published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience, has been able to measure the rate of Patagonia glacier loss over the last several hundred years. The team of scientists, from Britain and Sweden, has found that current melting rates are ten times faster than newly measured historical rates. With temperatures in the region rising fast, in line with global warming climate model projections, it seems the death of Patagonia's glaciers has man's hand behind it.

Patagonia glaciers now melting ten times faster

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