Climate Change News - July 16, 2012

Last 12 Months the Hottest on Record in United States

The 12-month period from July 2011 to June 2012 was the hottest in US recorded history, according to statistics released last week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Every state in the contiguous United States, except Washington, experienced higher than average temperatures during that period. The record-breaking temperatures coincide with a drought that now covers 56 percent of the continental United States, which NOAA says is the largest drought footprint of the 21st century. In Colorado, these extremely hot and dry conditions led to the outbreak of several devastating wildfires, including the Waldo Canyon fire near Colorado Springs that blazed uncontrolled for weeks, and destroyed several hundred homes. Across the country, wildfires burned more than 1.3 million acres during June.

For additional information see: Forbes , Reuters , Climate Central , Wall Street Journal

Warmer Temperatures Making Extreme Weather More Likely

A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concluded that global warming made the occurrence of many recent extreme weather events more likely. The report found that climate change made the record 2011 Texas drought 20 times more likely to occur. It also said Britain’s heat wave in November 2011 was made 62 times more likely because of warmer temperatures. Tom Karl, the head of NOAA’s Climate Office, said, "What we're seeing, not only in Texas but in other phenomena in other parts of the world, where we can't explain these events by natural variability alone." The NOAA researchers are some of the first to attempt to attach specific probabilities to climate change’s influence over weather events. The report compares the warmer climate to a baseball player using steroids—a single home run (or extreme weather event) may not be directly attributable to steroid use, but there will be a large increase in the probability of him hitting a home run and in the number of home runs he hits. However, the report discounted the possibility that climate change played a role in the dramatic 2011 floods in Thailand, saying that the amount of rainfall in the region was not unusual by historical standards.

For additional information see: Washington Post , CBS News , Report

Rocky Mountain National Park’s Landscape Affected by Climate Change

Drought and climate change are altering the landscape of Rocky Mountain National Park. Mountain slopes that are normally covered in snow are currently barren. Wildflower numbers are down due to lack of rain and snowmelt. But the most dramatic change is the vast numbers of pine trees that have been killed by bark beetles. Snow and below-freezing temperatures historically keep bark beetles out of the northern parts of the Rocky Mountain range, but warming temperatures over the past 70 years are allowing the invasive bark beetle to devastate forests that were previously unreachable. “The fact that the trees are several hundred years old and dying of bark beetles, yes, I’d say that’s climate change,” said Judy Visty, Director of Rocky Mountain National Park’s Research Learning Center. “Those forests, at least for me, won’t look like they did in my lifetime ever again. I’ve lost that.” The Kawuneeche Valley in Rocky Mountain National Park has gradually become warmer with more than 300 days of above freezing temperatures recorded in 2010. Compared to temperature records in 1940, Rocky Mountain National Park has seen an annual increase of 50 additional days above freezing levels.

For additional information see: Coloradoan

Climate Change Altering Maine Duck Migrations

A recent study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found it “plausible” that climate change is the key factor in delaying the migration of mallard ducks. Ducks are staying in northern habitats for a longer period of time, and are not starting their southern migration until weeks later than usual. “With few exceptions, harvest dates for mallards throughout the mid-latitude and southern states have become consistently later,” said Dr. Frank Rohwer, science director for the Bipartisan Policy Center. Many states' hunting seasons are only a few weeks long, and because of the delay in migration patterns, the ducks land in local areas after the hunting season has drawn to a close. Because of the delay in the ducks' migration to Maine, the state’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is applying for a third coastal hunting zone, allowing hunters to use new areas for duck hunting.

For additional information see: Down East

Ocean Acidification Threatens Coral Reefs

Last week at the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium, Chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Jane Lubchenco described ocean acidification as a direct counterpart to terrestrial climate change. “Those surface waters are changing much more rapidly than initial calculations have suggested,” Lubchenco said. “It’s yet another reason to be very seriously concerned about the amount of carbon dioxide that is in the atmosphere now.” More than 2,600 scientists at the conference signed a petition urging governments "to take action for the preservation of coral reefs for the benefit of present and future generations." The petition cited land-based pollution, overfishing, sedimentation, and climate change as the biggest threats to coral reefs today. The potential impact of ocean acidification could be devastating; coral reefs bring tourist dollars and protect coastlines from hurricane and tsunami damage, and many coastal communities depend on fish and shellfish as a primary food source.

For additional information see: Washington Post , BBC News

China Establishes Regulations for National Carbon Market

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has created a set of standards that regional governments must follow as they develop voluntary carbon trading schemes. Several Chinese cities and provinces are preparing to launch pilot cap and trade programs, which are loosely modeled on the European Union’s trading scheme. The new rules establish NDRC as the national authority on emissions trading activities. The rules create a set of standard methodologies for measuring emission reductions, including setting baselines and calculating such reductions. The regulations also call for emissions reduction data to be independently verified by qualified organizations. "While still at a very early stage, today China is on the right track towards a nationwide compulsory carbon market by establishing the infrastructure, technical guideline, as well as institutional structure needed to accelerate progress," said Changhua Wu of the Climate Group.

For additional information see: Business Green , Regulations

Bavarian Glaciers May Vanish in 30 Years

Temperatures in the Bavarian Alps have risen by 2 degrees Celsius over the last 150 years—nearly double the world average—and the south German state of Bavaria says most of its glaciers will disappear over the next few decades as a result. In Bavaria’s first ever glacier report, it found that the total area of the state’s five glaciers has dropped from four square kilometers in 1820 to 0.7 square kilometers today, and that the anticipated warming of the region will cause even more melting. The only glacier that is expected to survive after 30 years is the famous Höllentalferner Glacier, which is protected from sunshine by high cliffs. During a presentation of the report in Munich, Bavarian Environment Minister Marcel Huber announced that Bavaria would spend more than $1.3 billion on climate protection and on Germany's planned nuclear energy phase-out to combat rising temperatures.

For additional information see: Der Spiegel

Guyana President Says Climate Change Is Biggest Threat to Caribbean

In his opening address to the 33rd Caribbean Community Summit last week, Guyanese President Donald Ramotar said that climate change poses the single biggest threat to the region. Ramotar called for the community’s 15 members—mostly small island nations—to come together to advocate for a common position on climate change. Ramotar said that international negotiations on climate change matters were “going much too slow, while emissions are on an unacceptably high trajectory, and finance for adaptation and mitigation woefully inadequate.” He said the region could use its “extreme exposure to climate change” to push for more action. The summit came a week after the Rio +20 Earth Summit, in which world leaders failed to agree on any concrete measures to combat climate change.

For additional information see: Trinidad & Tobago Guardian

Study Says Developing World Contributed More to Climate Change than Previously Thought

While industrial emissions account for much of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today, a new study has concluded that preindustrial land use was more of a contributor to climate change over the last 150 years than previously thought. The study, published in Environmental Research Letters, says that the clearing of forests for agricultural use before the Industrial Revolution is responsible for nearly 10 percent of the global climate change experienced today. This finding shifts some of the historic emissions for global warming from industrialized nations such as the United States and Britain to developing nations such as China and India, where much of the deforestation occurred in the preindustrial era. The study could impact international climate change negotiations, as countries argue about how much each nation is responsible for climate change. However, the study stressed that post-Industrial Revolution emissions remain the most significant contributors to current greenhouse gas levels. “Pre-industrial emissions produced a small amount of climate change but the big emissions today will have much greater effects in the centuries to come," said Ken Caldeira, a co-author of the paper.

For additional information see: The Telegraph , Study

Shrub’s Shrinking Leaves Are the Result of Climate Change

A study of the hopbush, a small Australian shrub, has found that its leaves have narrowed by 40 percent over the last 127 years. These changes took place over a period when southern Australia saw its maximum temperature increase by 1.2 degree Celsius, which is even more than the global maximum temperature increase. The region also has suffered a number of severe droughts over the past few decades. Smaller, narrower leaves are often found on plants in hot, arid climates because they reduce the amount of water the plants lose to evaporation. The study, published in Biology Letters, also found that hopbush plants that grow closer to the equator—where it is hotter and drier—have narrower leaves than their counterparts growing in cooler, wetter places. One of the study’s co-authors, Andrew Lowe, says this is good news for the hopbush because “it shows it has the adaptive capacity to cope with the climate change that we’ve experienced to date." The study’s authors have not yet done genetic tests to find out whether this change is due to genetic adaptation, or if the plants have a built-in plasticity that allows them to respond to temperature changes.

For additional information see: Nature

Minor Volcanic Eruptions Can Cool Global Temperatures

New research has found that even small volcanic eruptions can release gas into the upper atmosphere, where it can affect global temperatures. A study of the small June 2011 eruption of the Nabro volcano in Eritrea showed that the eruption released gases, such as sulfur dioxide, high into the stratosphere. Once in the stratosphere, volcanic gases can combine with water vapor to form particles that reflect light away from the Earth, producing a cooling effect. It was previously thought that only large volcanic eruptions are capable of sending gases into the stratosphere, but researchers found that warm air from the Asian monsoon lifted the vapors from the Nabro eruption and allowed them to escape the lower atmosphere. While a single small volcanic eruption does not release enough gases to impact the global climate, the cumulative effects of several such eruptions could. The study, published in the journal Science, could influence the way climate change models are made in the future.

For additional information see: TG Daily , Our Amazing Planet