Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Arctic

Arctic heating, the paper shows, both slows the Rossby waves and makes them steeper and wider. Instead of moving on rapidly, the weather gets stuck. Regions to the south of the stalled meander wait for weeks or months for rain; regions to the north (or underneath it) wait for weeks or months for a break from the rain. Instead of a benign succession of sunshine and showers, we get droughts or floods. During the winter a slow, steep meander can connect us directly to the polar weather, dragging severe ice and snow far to the south of its usual range. This mechanism goes a long way towards explaining the shift to sustained – and therefore extreme – weather patterns around the northern hemisphere.
Read the whole thing here:
Along with the Arctic ice, the rich world's smugness will melt | George Monbiot
Scientists say Arctic sea ice is important because it keeps the polar region cold and helps moderate global climate — some have dubbed it “Earth’s air conditioner.” While the bright surface of Arctic sea ice reflects up to 80 percent of the sunlight back to space, the increasing amounts of open ocean there — which absorb about 90 percent of the sunlight striking the Arctic — have created a positive feedback effect, causing the ocean to heat up and contribute to increased sea ice melt
Read the whole thing here (comments too):
Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Lowest Extent Ever Measured, Reports National Snow and Ice Data Center

HT The Climate Show via Facebook

Saturday, August 18, 2012

How the battle for water will reshape our world


HT prokaryotes comment at Climate Progress

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Bill McKibben of 350.org: Even Industry-Funded Climate Change Deniers Can’t Ignore Planet’s Warming