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So what are the priorities for Obama, and indeed, for world governments, as they gather to discuss the next international treaty at Poznan this month? Can something meaningful be hammered out in Copenhagen in a years time? What are the implications of us collectively making a choice to do nothing, or at least very little? […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Emissions, Future, Nuclear, Renewables | 23 Comments »
It would be an understatement of epic proportions to say that President-elect Barack Obama has a big job ahead of him come January 2009. Plenty of people will be giving him ‘advice’ – some good, most not (if the history of vested interests twisting the political process over the last few decades is any guide). […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Future | 9 Comments »
I’ve been keeping busy in China – currently in Yangling for the huge China Agricultural Fair (over 300,000 people at the opening ceremony). I’ve giving a talk on climate change to the participants tomorrow. So not much time for BraveNewClimate until I get back to Australia. But to keep readers interested, I thought I’d share […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Future | 37 Comments »
Guest post by Dr Michael Lardelli ———————————- Cornucopians – those who believe the Earth’s resources are boundless – have a clever mental trick to avoid acknowledging that the planet is finite. It is commonly called the “resource pyramid”. The argument goes like this. When we first begin to extract a substance from a resource we […]
Filed under: Emissions, Future | 20 Comments »
Olduvai Gorge in East Africa is famous for its fossils of proto-humans and Palaeolithic (old stone age) tools. Fragmentary remains of some of the oldest representatives of hominids generally accepted to be our immediate evolutionary ancestors have been recovered there. To those interested in palaeoanthropology, it is a name steeped in (pre)history. So what of […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Future | 30 Comments »
Guest post by Andrew Glikson and Emily Spence (Andrew is an Earth and paleo-climate scientist, Australian National University who has contributed regularly to Brave New Climate. Emily Spence, environmental and social policy writer, Massachusetts, U.S.A.) “Dear Caesar Keep Burning, raping, killing But please, please Spare us your obscene poetry And ugly music “ – From […]
Filed under: Future | 9 Comments »
You may have heard that the planet is committed to further warming and sea level rise, irrespective of what choices we now make to reduce carbon emissions. The global warming century trend that was observed from 1906 to 2005 was 0.74°C (with a 90% uncertainty range of 0.56°C to 0.92°C), with more warming occurring in […]
Filed under: Future | 25 Comments »
A stark appraisal of the synthesis report of the IPCC 4th assessment (AR4) reveals some disturbing realities. First, stabilisation scenarios indicate that to have a reasonable chance of avoiding 2 to 2.4°C warming, we will need to achieve global emissions reductions of 50 to 85 percent by 2050, relative to year 2000 output and a levelling off by no later than […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Future | 25 Comments »
Some climate scientists choose not to talk specifically about emissions reductions. Dr James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University is one of them. Prof John Schellnhuber of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research is another. Instead they refer to a level of atmospheric CO2 (plus other greenhouse gases that […]
Filed under: Emissions, Future | 31 Comments »
Records of abrupt climate events in the recent history of Earth suggest current emission reduction targets fall short of preventing carbon and ice/melt feedback loops and consequent runaway greenhouse effects Andrew Glikson (editing and hyperlinking by Barry Brook) Earth and paleo-climate research, Research School of Earth Science, Australian National University Summary: Current CO2 (carbon dioxide) […]
Filed under: Clim Ch Q&A, Future, Impacts | 33 Comments »
The summer sea ice in the Arctic continues to melt at an alarming pace. It now stands at the second lowest point since records began (just above the exceptional melt of 2007). What is more, the rate of melt at this point of the decline season is greater than for any other year since the […]
Filed under: Future | 34 Comments »
First published in the Adelaide Advertiser, 1 degree series, August 2007 – updated and hyperlinked. One of the clearest and most worrying signs that something odd is happening to Earth’s climate is that sea levels are rising steadily. Records of long-term tidal gauges show that sea levels were 17-20 cm higher at the start of […]
Filed under: Future | 11 Comments »
Originally published in the Independent Weekly newspaper (Adelaide), March 2008 Last year, the socio-political terrain surrounding climate change shifted dramatically. The clarion call for urgent action to slow global warming was sounded loud and clear by the scientific community. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report stated bluntly that without a rapid […]
Filed under: Future, Renewables | 2 Comments »
Guest Post by Dr Andrew Glikson (former Principal Research Scientist, AGSO; Visiting Research Fellow, Australian National University) and Dr Barrie Pittock (Honorary Fellow, CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research; former leader, Climate Impact Group, CSIRO). THE GLOBAL VIEW In a recent published statement (18 May, 2007) Professor James Hansen, NASA’s Chief Climate Scientist, states: ‘The Earth […]
Filed under: Future, Impacts | 34 Comments »
In the last year, two different groups of Australian scientists have released joint statements, urging a more rapid and meaningful response from our society if we are to avoid global climate disruption. The first was called the Bali Declaration: UNSW climatologists are leading a consortium of more than 200 leading climate scientists who have warned […]
Filed under: Emissions, Future | 58 Comments »
Originally posted on Skeptical Science… A related post can be found here. Human are transforming the global environmental. Great swathes of temperate forest in Europe, Asia and North America have been cleared over the past few centuries for agriculture, timber and urban development. Tropical forests are now on the front line. Human-assisted species invasions of […]
Filed under: Future, Impacts, Sceptics | 50 Comments »
We’ve overshot the ‘safe’ level of atmospheric greenhouse gases are are going to be forced to look for ways to artificially cool the planet, or alternatively, to rapidly drawn down free-air CO2. Most geoengineering solutions look to do the former. For instance, the ‘simulated volcano’ (stratospheric sulphates) or ‘sunshade world’ (mirrors in space) are intended […]
Filed under: Future, Renewables | 8 Comments »
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