Historic ‘black swell’ hits Europe with 60-foot waves – ‘The biggest storm I have seen on maps’

6 January 2014 (Surfer Today) – The “Black Swell” is hitting UK, Ireland, and Portugal. Huge waves have been spotted, as the storm passes through the Azores Islands and heads to Continental Europe. The black fetch is wide, fast and furious. The swell charts don’t lie. The eye of the storm is larger than the […]

Argentina sanctions power companies for repeated outages that affected millions during record heat wave

4 January 2013 (MercoPress) – Argentina sanctions power companies for repeated outages that affected millions Federal Planning Minister Julio De Vido said the government of President Cristina Fernandez will not give in to “companies’ pressure’ that seek to reach a tariff hike. “The system failed where there was no investment,” the minister affirmed accusing Edenor […]

Climate scientist Ralph Keeling in crowdfunding plea to back key research as government funding for global warming research dries up

[University of California at San Diego, home of the Scripps program, is accepting donations here.] By John H. Cushman Jr.2 January 2014 (InsideClimate News) – Ralph Keeling, the director of an acclaimed Scripps program that keeps track of the amounts of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the atmosphere, has renewed his plea for public support […]

Record tides and floods as severe storms lash Ireland, with more on the way – ‘Black Swell’ to hit UK, Ireland, and Portugal

By PATRICK COUNIHAN4 January 2014 (IrishCentral) – The latest storms to hit Ireland will cost the economy almost half a billion dollars – with more on the way over the weekend. Record tides and devastating flood and gales lashed the country on Friday with Ireland’s weather forecast service warning of a repeat on Sunday. Experts […]

2013 was hottest year on record in Australia – PM Tony Abbott urged to rethink climate policy

3 January 2014 (ABC) – Australia has just sweltered through its hottest year on record, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Average temperatures were 1.20 degrees Celsius above the long-term average of 21.8C, breaking the previous record set in 2005 by 0.17C, the bureau said in its Annual Climate Statement. All states and territories recorded […]

Argentina’s worst heat wave in 107 years subsides – Buenos Aires residents protest over ‘heatwave power cuts’

30 December 2013 (BBC News) – Main roads to the Argentine capital Buenos Aires have been blocked by people protesting against power cuts. They are demanding government action on shortages that have been affecting many parts of the city. Residents set fire to rubbish bags and tyres on the roads, causing long traffic jams as […]

Graph of the Day: Total number of disasters and losses worldwide, 1980-2012

18 November 2013 (World Bank) – Since the 1980s, there has been an upward trend in disaster losses. During the 1980–2012 period, estimated total reported losses due to disasters amounted to US$3.8 trillion. Weather-related or hydro-meteorological disasters accounted for 74% (US$2.6 tril- lion) of total reported losses, 87% (18,200) of total disasters, and 61% (1.4 […]

Global warming: A bit more sensitive…

By Michael E. Mann and Gavin Schmidt2 January 2014 (RealClimate.org) – This time last year we gave an overview of what different methods of assessing climate sensitivity were giving in the most recent analyses. We discussed the three general methods that can be used: The first is to focus on a time in the past […]

Through the looking glass of the Great Dying: New study finds ocean stratification proceeded rapidly over past 150 years

By Robert Scribbler18 December 2013 (robertscribbler.wordpress.com) – During the terrible mass extinction event at the Permian-Triassic boundary about 250 million years ago nearly all life on Earth was snuffed out. The event, which geologists have dubbed “The Great Dying,” occurred during a period of rapid warming on the tail end of a long period of […]

‘Whole world’ at risk from simultaneous droughts, famines, epidemics: scientists

By Nafeez Ahmed17 December 2013 (The Guardian) – An international scientific research project known as the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP), run by 30 teams from 12 countries, has attempted to understand the severity and scale of global impacts of climate change. The project compares model projections on water scarcity, crop yields, disease, floods […]

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