Beginning this spring NASA will be flying an unmanned robotic-satellite hybrid aircraft outfitted with scientific instruments to observe the Earth's atmosphere in minute detail. The agency has partnered with Northrop Grumman to outfit three aircraft, called Global Hawks -gifts to NASA by the U.S. Air Force- that can fly for up to 30 hours and travel for longer distances and at high altitudes with greater accuracy that satellite observations and travel to regions, such as the arctic, that are typically too dangerous for manned missions.
The first comprehensive reconstruction of an extreme warm period shows the sensitivity of the climate system to changes in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels as well as the strong influence of ocean temperatures, heat transport from equatorial regions, and greenhouse gases on Earth's temperature.
New data allows for more accurate predictions of future climate and improved understanding of today's warming. Past warm periods provide real data on climate change and are natural laboratories for understanding the global climate system.
One of the leading experts on planet Earth, James Lovelock, believes
that there is very little we can do to stave off global warming
catastrophes. Lovelock is the man who created the Gaia theory – that
the earth is essentially a complex interacting system that can be
thought of as a single organism.
"Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change from radically impacting on our lives over the coming decades." This is the stark conclusion of James Lovelock, the globally respected environmental thinker and independent scientist who developed the Gaia theory in an interview this week with The Guardian.
Cornell University professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, Charles Greene, one of the authors of "A Very Inconvenient Truth," published in the peer-reviewed journal Oceanography (March 2010), said that he and his co-authors conclude that the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007 4th assessment report underestimates the potential dangerous effects that man-made climate change will have on society.
The Quelccaya Ice Cap in the heart of the Peruvian Andres, is the
largest
tropical body of ice in the world. The ice cap is at an average
altitude of 5,470 meters (18,600 ft) and spans an area of 44 square
kilometers (17 miles). As the ice cap is retreating, it is exposing
almost perfectly preserved plant specimens dating back 5,200 year,
indicating that it has been more than 50 centuries since the ice cap
was smaller than it is today.
Evidence has mounted that global warming began in the last century and that humans are, at least in part, responsible. The concern is that the warming of our climate will greatly affect its habitability for many species, including humans. Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences concur that this is the case. But some argue that this thinking is too limited. They say that too many scientists are either ignoring, or don’t understand, the well-established fact that Earth’s climate has changed rapidly in the past and could change rapidly in the future—in either direction.
"Climate scientists worry about 'tipping points' ... thresholds beyond
which a small additional increase in average temperature or some
associated climate variable results in major changes to the affected
system.Among the tipping points we face in the near future are the complete
disappearance of Arctic sea ice in summer, leading to drastic changes
in ocean circulation and climate patterns across the whole Northern
Hemisphere; acceleration of ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic
ice sheets, driving rates of sea-level increase to 6 feet or more per
century; and ocean acidification from carbon dioxide absorption,
causing massive disruption in ocean food webs."
The planet has warmed much less than expected during the industrial era based on current best estimates of Earth's "climate sensitivity" -- the amount of global temperature increase expected in response to a given rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.
The amount of CO2 and other heat-trapping gases added to Earth's atmosphere since humanity began burning fossil fuels on a significant scale during the industrial period would be expected to result in a mean global temperature rise of 3.8°F -- well more than the 1.4°F increase that has been observed for this time span.
An international team of scientists now have proof of a sudden, remarkably warm period in Antarctica that occurred about 15.7 million years ago and lasted for a few thousand years.
Last year, as Sophie Warny, LSU assistant professor of geology and geophysics was studying samples sent to her from the latest Antarctic Geologic Drilling Program, or ANDRILL one sample stood out as a complete anomaly.
Icefish well adapted to life in cold
water with anti-freeze, but no red blood cells in their blood (image below) thrive in the seas of Antarctica's continental shelf along with sea pigs, giant sea spiders, octopus, rare rays and basket stars are revealed in a series of new photographs released this week. The images were captured by a research team from across Europe, the United States, Australia and
South Africa on board the British Antarctic Survey ship James Clark Ross
who sampled and photographed marine creatures from the Bellingshausen Sea in West Antarctica – one of the fastest warming seas in the world.
"For me the most astonishing evidence is the
way that one man-made environmental impact - the ozone hole - has
shielded most of Antarctica from another - global warming," reported
John Turner of the BAS team.
Beginning this spring NASA will be flying an unmanned robotic-satellite hybrid aircraft outfitted with scientific instruments to observe the Earth's atmosphere in minute detail. The agency has partnered with Northrop Grumman to outfit three aircraft, called Global Hawks -gifts to NASA by the U.S. Air Force- that can fly for up to 30 hours and travel for longer distances and at high altitudes with greater accuracy that satellite observations and travel to regions, such as the arctic, that are typically too dangerous for manned missions.
The first comprehensive reconstruction of an extreme warm period shows the sensitivity of the climate system to changes in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels as well as the strong influence of ocean temperatures, heat transport from equatorial regions, and greenhouse gases on Earth's temperature.
New data allows for more accurate predictions of future climate and improved understanding of today's warming. Past warm periods provide real data on climate change and are natural laboratories for understanding the global climate system.
One of the leading experts on planet Earth, James Lovelock, believes
that there is very little we can do to stave off global warming
catastrophes. Lovelock is the man who created the Gaia theory – that
the earth is essentially a complex interacting system that can be
thought of as a single organism.
"Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change from radically impacting on our lives over the coming decades." This is the stark conclusion of James Lovelock, the globally respected environmental thinker and independent scientist who developed the Gaia theory in an interview this week with The Guardian.
Cornell University professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, Charles Greene, one of the authors of "A Very Inconvenient Truth," published in the peer-reviewed journal Oceanography (March 2010), said that he and his co-authors conclude that the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007 4th assessment report underestimates the potential dangerous effects that man-made climate change will have on society.
The Quelccaya Ice Cap in the heart of the Peruvian Andres, is the
largest
tropical body of ice in the world. The ice cap is at an average
altitude of 5,470 meters (18,600 ft) and spans an area of 44 square
kilometers (17 miles). As the ice cap is retreating, it is exposing
almost perfectly preserved plant specimens dating back 5,200 year,
indicating that it has been more than 50 centuries since the ice cap
was smaller than it is today.
Evidence has mounted that global warming began in the last century and that humans are, at least in part, responsible. The concern is that the warming of our climate will greatly affect its habitability for many species, including humans. Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences concur that this is the case. But some argue that this thinking is too limited. They say that too many scientists are either ignoring, or don’t understand, the well-established fact that Earth’s climate has changed rapidly in the past and could change rapidly in the future—in either direction.
"Climate scientists worry about 'tipping points' ... thresholds beyond
which a small additional increase in average temperature or some
associated climate variable results in major changes to the affected
system.Among the tipping points we face in the near future are the complete
disappearance of Arctic sea ice in summer, leading to drastic changes
in ocean circulation and climate patterns across the whole Northern
Hemisphere; acceleration of ice loss from the Greenland and Antarctic
ice sheets, driving rates of sea-level increase to 6 feet or more per
century; and ocean acidification from carbon dioxide absorption,
causing massive disruption in ocean food webs."
The planet has warmed much less than expected during the industrial era based on current best estimates of Earth's "climate sensitivity" -- the amount of global temperature increase expected in response to a given rise in atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide.
The amount of CO2 and other heat-trapping gases added to Earth's atmosphere since humanity began burning fossil fuels on a significant scale during the industrial period would be expected to result in a mean global temperature rise of 3.8°F -- well more than the 1.4°F increase that has been observed for this time span.
An international team of scientists now have proof of a sudden, remarkably warm period in Antarctica that occurred about 15.7 million years ago and lasted for a few thousand years.
Last year, as Sophie Warny, LSU assistant professor of geology and geophysics was studying samples sent to her from the latest Antarctic Geologic Drilling Program, or ANDRILL one sample stood out as a complete anomaly.
Icefish well adapted to life in cold
water with anti-freeze, but no red blood cells in their blood (image below) thrive in the seas of Antarctica's continental shelf along with sea pigs, giant sea spiders, octopus, rare rays and basket stars are revealed in a series of new photographs released this week. The images were captured by a research team from across Europe, the United States, Australia and
South Africa on board the British Antarctic Survey ship James Clark Ross
who sampled and photographed marine creatures from the Bellingshausen Sea in West Antarctica – one of the fastest warming seas in the world.
"For me the most astonishing evidence is the
way that one man-made environmental impact - the ozone hole - has
shielded most of Antarctica from another - global warming," reported
John Turner of the BAS team.
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