Glacier Melt Accelerating

World Glacier Monitoring Service

The new data continues the global trend in accelerated ice loss over the past few decades

study

Ocean Dead Zones

University of Copenhagen
Lead author: Gary Shaffer
Where published: Nature Geoscience

Any increase in dead zones from global warming will last for thousands of years. They will be a permanent fixture ... In the worst-case scenario, dead zones could encompass more than a fifth of the world's oceans

article

Warming Irreversible Due to CO2

NOAA, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat
Lead Author: Susan Solomon
Where published: Proceedings of the Natl Academy of Sciences

climate change that takes place due to increases in carbon dioxide concentration is largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop

study

Warming Worse than IPCC Projections

MIT
Lead author: A.P. Solokof

all our simulations have a very small probability of warming less than 2.4°C, the lower bound of the IPCC AR4 projected likely range

study

Reanalysis of Historical Climate Data

NOAA
Lead authors: Randall Dole, Martin Hoerling, Siegfried Schubert

Greenhouse gases play an important role in North American climate ... More than half of this warming is likely the result of human-caused greenhouse gas forcing of climate change

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press release

Warming Unprecedented in Human History

Cornell University
Lead author: Charles Greene
Where published: Ecology

The rate of warming we are seeing is unprecedented in human history.

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Negligible Solar Impact on Recent Warming

Naval Research Laboratory, NASA
Lead authors: Judith Lean, David Rind
Where published: Geophysical Research Letters

None of the natural processes can account for the overall warming trend in global surface temperatures ... solar forcing contributed negligible long-term warming in the past 25 years and 10% of the warming in the past 100 years

study

Damages from Ocean Acidification

U. Hawaii, UC Santa Cruz, Carnagie Inst., Southhampton U.
Authors: Richard E. Zeebe, James C. Zachos, Ken Caldeira, Toby Tyrrell
Where published: Science

Avoiding environmental damage from ocean acidification requires reductions in
carbon dioxide emissions regardless of climate change.

Study

Methane Release May Cause Abrupt Change

UC Riverside
Lead author: Martin Kennedy
Where published: Nature

Our findings document an abrupt and catastrophic means of global warming that abruptly led from a very cold, seemingly stable climate state to a very warm also stable climate state

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abstract

Atmosphere Temperature & Thermal Winds

Yale
Lead authors: Robert Allen, Steven Sherwood
Where published: Nature Geoscience

This puts to rest any lingering doubts that the atmosphere really has been warming up more or less as we expect, due mainly to the greenhouse effect of increasing gases like carbon dioxide

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abstract

Antarctic Temperature, CO2 Correlation

University of Bern
Lead author: Dieter Lüthi
Where published: Nature

atmospheric carbon dioxide is strongly correlated with Antarctic temperature throughout eight glacial cycles

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AGW Confirmed by Metastudy

NASA Goddard Institute, Stanford University
Lead authors: Cynthia Rosenzweig, Terry Root
Where published: Nature

formally links observed global changes in physical and biological systems to human-induced climate change, predominantly from increasing greenhouse gases

study

Climate Change Not Caused By Cosmic Rays

Lancaster University, Durham University
Lead authors: Terry Sloan, Arnold Wolfendale
Where published: Institute of Physics' Environmental Research Letters

The groups went on to hypothesize that the decrease in ionization due to cosmic rays causes the decrease in cloud cover, thereby explaining a large part of the currently observed global warming. We have examined this hypothesis to look for evidence to corroborate it. None has been found and so our conclusions are to doubt it. From the absence of corroborative evidence, we estimate that less than 23%, at the 95% confidence level, of the 11 year cycle change in the globally averaged cloud cover observed in solar cycle 22 is due to the change in the rate of ionization from the solar modulation of cosmic rays.

abstract

Impact of Black Carbon

Scripps, College of Engineering
Lead authors: V. Ramanathan, G. Carmichael
Where published: Nature Geoscience

More than three-quarters of the particulate pollution known as black carbon and transported at high altitudes over the West Coast during spring comes from Asia. The material not only affects climate in Asia, it also carries consequences for the Pacific Ocean region that drives much of the climate around the world.

article

Ocean "Deserts" are Expanding

NOAA, U. Hawaii
Lead authors: Jeffrey Polovina, Evan Howell, Melanie Abecassis
Where published: Geophysical Research Letters

The least biologically productive areas of the oceans are expanding much faster than predicted ... This change in ocean biology, linked to the warming of sea surface waters, may negatively affect the populations of many fish species trying to survive in these desert-like environments ... Between 1998 and 2007, these expanses of saltwater with low surface plant life in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans grew by 15 percent or 6.6 million square kilometers

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Stable Climate Needs Near-Zero Carbon Emissions

Carnegie Institution
Lead authors: Ken Caldeira, Damon Matthews
Where published: Geophysical Research Letters

According to a new study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution, halfway measures won’t do the job. To stabilize our planet’s climate, we need to find ways to kick the carbon habit altogether.

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Insect Damage to Crops

Pennsylvania State University
Lead author: Ellen Currano
Where published: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

If modern temperatures continue to rise as anticipated in the coming years the planet could see a similar increase in insect damage to crops and other plants ... We see a huge increase in the percent of plants that are being attacked

article

Sea Level Rise Could Be Twice As High As Projected

University of Buffalo
Lead author: Beata Csatho
Where published: Journal of Glaciology

If current climate models from the IPCC included data from ice dynamics in Greenland, the sea level rise estimated during this century could be twice as high as what they are currently projecting ... the changes we are seeing now are bigger than can be accounted for by normal, annual perturbations in climate

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Climate May Undergo Sudden Shifts

University of East Anglia
Lead author: Tim Lenton
Where published: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Our findings suggest that a variety of tipping elements could reach their critical point within this century under human-induced climate change ... The greatest threats are tipping of the Arctic sea-ice and the Greenland ice sheet, and at least five other elements could surprise us by exhibiting a nearby tipping point.

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Antarctic Ice Loss Speeds Up

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, U. California
Lead author: Eric Rignot
Where published: Nature Geoscience

Ice loss in Antarctica increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years due to a speed-up in the flow of its glaciers and is now nearly as great as that observed in Greenland, according to a new, comprehensive study

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