ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2009) — Unusually high temperatures in the Arctic and heavy rains in the tropics likely drove a global increase in atmospheric methane in 2007 and 2008 after a decade of near-zero growth, according to a new study. Methane is the second most abundant greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide, albeit a distant second. […]
Northward expansion of insect herbivores such as the winter moth in northernmost Fennoscandia (intact mountain birch forest is shown in green, severely defoliated forest during the most recent outbreak in 2005 to 2008 is in dark brown, and tundra beyond the tree line is in white; reports of local winter moth outbreaks before the last […]
Washington/Nairobi, 24 September 2009 -The pace and scale of climate change may now be outstripping even the most sobering predictions of the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC). An analysis of the very latest, peer-reviewed science indicates that many predictions at the upper end of the IPCC’s forecasts are becoming […]
By DAN JOLING, The Associated Press Up to 200 dead walruses have been spotted on the shore of Chukchi Sea on Alaska’s northwest coast. Federal wildlife researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey on their way to a walrus tagging project spotted 100 to 200 carcasses near Icy Cape about 140 miles southwest of Barrow. They […]
Complex responses to Arctic climate change that may have broader community and ecosystem consequences. A developing trophic mismatch between the timing of caribou calving (blue), which has not changed, and the timing of plant growth (red), which is advancing with warming in Greenland [updated from E. Post, M. C. Forchhammer, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B […]
By Shanta Barley You can almost hear Sarah Palin cocking her rifle. As climate change causes sea ice to shrink, the number of “problem” polar bears appears to be increasing. “Hungry bears don’t just lie down – they go looking for an alternate food source,” says zoologist Ian Stirling at the University of Alberta in […]
By Mark Kinver, Science and environment reporter, BBC News Milder winters in the Arctic region have led to fewer Pacific brants, a species of sea goose, migrating southwards, say researchers. A study by the US Geological Survey (USGS) found that as many as 30% of the birds were overwintering in Alaska rather than migrating to […]
You might think that one of the world’s foremost examples of the impact of climate change would be deterred from making exceptionally pollution-heavy plans for development. You’d be wrong. Despite the fact that global warming is causing its important glaciers to melt astonishingly fast, Greenland is on track to become one of the world’s most […]
Direct and rapid responses to recent Arctic climate change have included earlier flowering of plants in Greenland [replicate slopes for each genus are based on annual estimates from 1996 to 2008 in Zackenberg; adapted from T. T. Høye, E. Post, H. Meltofte, N. M. Schmidt, M. C. Forchhammer, Curr. Biol. 17, R449 (2007)]. Eric Post, […]
From Tamino: Several things are abundantly clear: The “sudden recent warming” is right there. For every grid. Just open your eyes. For every grid the last decade is the warmest. Over the last 3 decades, 108 out of 113 individual stations indicate warming, 48 of 113 are significant at 95% confidence, none show significant cooling. […]
