I have a few links on climate change. Rather than do a self-spamming of the blog...
As the climate models have been predicting, the tropical rainfall, as a whole, has been increasing. Overall it has increased in the tropical areas 5%, but in Africa as a whole its decreased. (red above is the highest point of the spectrum and purple is the lowest). The tropics are not the only places getting dumped on. Ireland is reporting an increase in rainfall related to global warming. Should I be considering importing redwoods there? I think I'll stick to doing that in Greenland though.
Changing our time frames, a group of British researchers think that we are postponing the end of this interglacial. If we burn 1000 gigatons of carbon based fuels (specifically fossil fuels), then they think we'll skip the next glacial cycle. Furthermore, they say, we'll skip the next five if we burn 3000 gigatons. Interestingly, one of the juicy bits from Under a Green Sky that I hinted at is that Ward thinks we're headed to the Eocene[1] and right out of the glacial cycles altogether. Truthfully, I am somewhat inclined to agree, but that's due to a gut feeling rather than hard data. The paleoclimate guys seem to think that breaking out of the glacial cycle is a done deal if I am not misunderstanding what I've read.
Additionally, over on Real Climate, they have some projections of the near future for the regional climate changes that are expected. Africa is just in for a world of hurt, no matter who you talk to. :(
1. Sorry, no Neo-Oligocene, James, but fret not, the paleo climate guys in general think the Pliocene prior to the Ice Age is more likely than the Eocene. As noted before and will be in the future, I quoth Pielou: climate doesn't repeat; it's unique every single time.
As the climate models have been predicting, the tropical rainfall, as a whole, has been increasing. Overall it has increased in the tropical areas 5%, but in Africa as a whole its decreased. (red above is the highest point of the spectrum and purple is the lowest). The tropics are not the only places getting dumped on. Ireland is reporting an increase in rainfall related to global warming. Should I be considering importing redwoods there? I think I'll stick to doing that in Greenland though.
Changing our time frames, a group of British researchers think that we are postponing the end of this interglacial. If we burn 1000 gigatons of carbon based fuels (specifically fossil fuels), then they think we'll skip the next glacial cycle. Furthermore, they say, we'll skip the next five if we burn 3000 gigatons. Interestingly, one of the juicy bits from Under a Green Sky that I hinted at is that Ward thinks we're headed to the Eocene[1] and right out of the glacial cycles altogether. Truthfully, I am somewhat inclined to agree, but that's due to a gut feeling rather than hard data. The paleoclimate guys seem to think that breaking out of the glacial cycle is a done deal if I am not misunderstanding what I've read.
Additionally, over on Real Climate, they have some projections of the near future for the regional climate changes that are expected. Africa is just in for a world of hurt, no matter who you talk to. :(
1. Sorry, no Neo-Oligocene, James, but fret not, the paleo climate guys in general think the Pliocene prior to the Ice Age is more likely than the Eocene. As noted before and will be in the future, I quoth Pielou: climate doesn't repeat; it's unique every single time.
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