Climate243
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The Year of Drought and Flood
It seems that this year the world is experiencing a crisis of both too little water and too much. And while these crises often occur simultaneously in different regions, they also happen in the same places as short, fierce bursts of rain punctuate long dry spells.
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Somali Drought; Harbinger of Hard Times
For all its problems, Southern California has been a wonderful home for a lot of people over the past 100 or so years. It has nice beaches, good roads, plenty of places to eat, and, for now, a reliable supply of drinking water. Now imagine the L.A. riots had spread across the entire region, plunging…
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Understanding GHG emissions: Stock vs. Flows
In discussing climate change and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a key distinction must be made between the stock of GHGs in the atmosphere, and the flow of GHGs, primarily emissions. Understanding this difference is crucial for designing and implementing policies to effectively address the problem. Because a bathtub is something that most of us are…
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Going West
After a busy few weeks in the Cordillera Carabaya, our field team has said goodbye to the snowy, tempestuous climate of the eastern Andes and is moving west to the desert of Arequipa. Here the mountains are massive, isolated volcanoes, many of which exceed 6000 m in elevation. In fact, Coropuna is the third highest…
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Climate News Roundup: Week of 7/10
Climate Change Drives Disease in Crucial Seaweed Species, Study Finds, Reuters, Jul 12 A new study from the University of New South Wales in Sydney links the spread of disease in a type of seaweed that is critical for marine life to climate change. Through field and lab observations, the researchers discovered that in warmer…
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Mad Dogs and Englishmen
Our field team has acquired a dog, ¨”Mooch”. Walking back to camp yesterday, amid driving snow and fully laden with rock samples, there he was exploring what passes for our kitchen. Unlike most Andean dogs – ferocious beasts trained to keep geologists from harassing the livestock – this one is a cheerful soul, happy to…
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Studying the Farthest-North Trees
A team led by Kevin Anchukaitis of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Tree Ring Lab is currently in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, studying the effects of changing climate on trees. Working near the treeline, they’re taking cores from spindly white spruces to measure weather of the past.
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Ancient mud from the high Andes
Thanks in large part to Matt, an undergraduate from Pacific Lutheran University in Washington, our field team now has more than sixty samples for surface-exposure dating. This is no easy feat, for collecting these samples requires a great deal of hammering on granite boulders with nothing more than a hammer and chisel. There are other…
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Climate information and disasters: two interviews
Jan Egeland and Madeleen Helmer talk about the value of forecasts in disaster preparation.
By studying thousands of buildings and analyzing their electricity use, Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson has been able to uncover ways to significantly cut energy consumption and emissions. Watch the Video: “Engineering a Cooler Future Through Smarter Buildings“
