Bryan Walker • Sep 02, 2012 •
Climate Change Minister Tim Groser gave a substantial and intelligently argued speech recently to an informal meeting in Auckland of international climate negotiators met to discuss the way forward to a new agreement in 2020. Groser makes the case for political realism in climate negotiation. He records his sense after attending a COP conference at [...] … Read More
Gareth Renowden • Aug 26, 2012 •
In this guest post Neven Acropolis, the man behind the excellent Arctic Sea Ice blog, looks at the reasons why we need to pay attention to the rapid loss of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean. Arctic sea ice became a recurrent feature on planet Earth around 47 million years ago. Since the start of [...] … Read More
Gareth Renowden • Aug 24, 2012 •
The crunch is coming. Before the end of this month, or very soon after, the Arctic sea ice will set a new record summer minimum for area and extent, by any measure. The only question remaining is by how much 2007′s record will be beaten. For the rest of the world, those of us who [...] … Read More
Gareth Renowden • Aug 12, 2012 •
Early results from the European Space Agency’s Cryosat-2 satellite, launched in 2010, suggest that the Arctic sea ice volume in summer is currently being lost at the rate of 900 cubic kilometres per year, Robin McKie reports in The Guardian. By combining Cryosat data with other sources they have concluded that there has been a [...] … Read More
Gareth Renowden • Aug 12, 2012 •
Bad news from the Arctic is piling up as we head into the last few weeks of the melting season. The various measures of sea ice area, volume and extent are plummeting towards a new record minimum. I have therefore reviewed the history of Arctic sea ice melting seasons since 2007, and compiled my own [...] … Read More
Gareth Renowden • Aug 06, 2012 •
The summer melt season in the Arctic is approaching its annual climax — the sea ice minimum, due in September — and the picture is beginning to look grim. Sea ice extent and area are tracking 2007′s record-setting melt, ice volume is at record lows for the time of year, and the ice is looking [...] … Read More
Gareth Renowden • Jul 05, 2012 •
Extreme weather events are where the climate change rubber hits the road, and if events over the last month are anything to go by, global warming is currently doing doughnuts and burnouts on tarmac right round the globe. Kevin Trenberth put it rather nicely in an interview with PBS Newshour in the US: “This is [...] … Read More
Gareth Renowden • Jun 27, 2012 •
Jason Box reports that the Greenland ice sheet darkening recorded in satellite albedo1 measurements is setting new records this summer, especially at high altitudes. Box recently blogged that ice sheet reflectivity this summer “has been the lowest since accurate records began in March, 2000″. Here’s the latest “noodle plot”2 (regularly updated here) for the ice [...] … Read More
Gareth Renowden • Jun 22, 2012 •
This stunning view of the Arctic and the northern hemisphere was captured by the Suomi-NPP satellite a couple of weeks ago. You can clearly see where the Arctic sea ice is beginning to melt and break up (the bluish bits of offshore ice). More on the image at the Earth Observatory. Meanwhile, new research indicates [...] … Read More
Gareth Renowden • Nov 04, 2011 •
We haven’t had an open thread for a while, and as there seems to be some desire to discuss Matt Ridley‘s recent lecture at the RSA in Edinburgh (see Bishop Hill for the first appearance thereof), here’s your chance. There’s a lot of other interesting stuff around — feel free to roam. But first, I’d [...] … Read More