By Steve Connor23 April 2012 A new source of methane – a greenhouse gas many times more powerful than carbon dioxide – has been identified by scientists flying over areas in the Arctic where the sea ice has melted. The researchers found significant amounts of methane being released from the ocean into the atmosphere through […]
1000-year records of southern hemisphere background concentrations of CO2 parts per million (ppm – orange), N2O parts per billion (ppb – blue) and CH4 (ppb – green) measured at Cape Grim Tasmania and in air extracted from Antarctic ice and near surface levels of ice known as firn. Global CO2, methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide […]
Annual (line) and decadal (box) mean sea-surface temperature anomalies for the Australian region relative to the 1961–1990 average. The average value for the most recent 10-year period (2002–2011) is shown in darker grey. Sea-surface temperatures in the Australian region in 2010 were the highest on record, with nine of the months during 2011 ranked in […]
By Benjamin H. Strauss20 April 2012 Good morning, Senator Bingaman and colleagues. Thank you for your attention to this important topic. I am Dr. Ben Strauss, coauthor of two recent peer-reviewed papers making an assessment of sea level risk to the lower 48 states, as well as the summary report submitted with my written testimony. […]
By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com19 April 2012 Most of the Southwest as well as parts of California and the Southeast can expect drought conditions to worsen through July, federal forecasters said Thursday. “Overall, the current Drought Outlook is not optimistic,” the National Weather Service said in summarizing its forecast. Besides affecting farmers and ranchers, drought means […]
Number of hottest (above) and coldest (below) day-of-the-month (highest maximum) records at 43 Australian climate reference stations with daily data from 1910; for each year (orange line) and each decade (grey boxes), and the 11-year average (black line). The average for the most recent 10-year period (2002-2011) is shown in darker grey. Australian annual-average overnight […]
By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent; Editing by Marilyn W. Thompson and Philip Barbara17 April 2012 (Reuters) – The number of earthquakes in the central United States rose “spectacularly” near where oil and gas drillers disposed of wastewater underground, a process that may have caused geologic faults to slip, U.S. government geologists report. The average number […]
(AP) YOKOSUKA, Japan – To the world’s military leaders, the debate over climate change is long over. They are preparing for a new kind of Cold War in the Arctic, anticipating that rising temperatures there will open up a treasure trove of resources, long-dreamed-of sea lanes and a slew of potential conflicts. By Arctic standards, […]
Increase in annual-average daily mean temperature from 1960 to 2011 (in °C). Most of Australia has experienced warming over the past 50 years, with some areas experiencing warming since 1960 of up to 1°C. The warming trend has occurred against a backdrop of natural, year-to-year climate variability. Most notably, El Niño and La Niña events […]
21 March 2012 (Houston Business Journal) – The Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill could have long-term effects on the Gulf of Mexico’s aquatic food chain, a new study says [Macondo-1 well oil-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in mesozooplankton from the northern Gulf of Mexico]. BP Plc’s (NYSE: BP) Macondo well at the site leaked […]
