. . . Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado in Boulder concluded, using actual measurements, that Arctic sea ice has declined at an average rate of about 7.8 percent per decade between 1953 and 2006. . . . ''While the ice is disappearing faster than the computer models indicate, both observations and the models point in the same direction: the Arctic is losing ice at an increasingly rapid pace and the impact of greenhouse gases is growing,'' said NCAR scientist Marika Holland, one of the study's co-authors.
. . . Dr Scambos co-authored the latest study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, with other scientists from NSIDC and from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), also in Boulder, Colorado. . . . Models are always verified against real-world data from the recent past to see how well their output mimics reality. The collection scrutinised here calculated an average decline of only 2.5% per decade for 1953-2006, and 4.3% per decade since 1979 - both well short of the real-world observations. "There are lessons here for the climate modelling community," acknowledged NCAR's Marika Holland. "The rate of ice loss, and the location of ice loss - these are things that the models need to improve, and there are physical processes such as the release of methane from melting permafrost that the models don't include."
. . . The shrinking of summertime ice is about 30 years ahead of the climate model projections, researchers with the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center report in the online edition of the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters. . . . NCAR scientist and co-author Marika Holland added that "while the ice is disappearing faster than the computer models indicate, both observations and the models point in the same direction: the Arctic is losing ice at an increasingly rapid pace and the impact of greenhouse gases is growing."
Boulder Daily Camera (April 27, 2007) circ. 33,000
By Todd Neff
Boulder author Robert Henson's 2006 book, "The Rough Guide to Climate Change," is one of six finalists for the British Royal Society's Prize for Science Books, billed as the world's most-prestigious award for science writing. The judges said: "This clearly illustrated book tells you everything you ever wanted to know about the 'hot topic' of the day in an accessible way."
Henson is a longtime writer at Boulder's National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Time (New York, New York) (April 26, 2007) circ. 4,034,061
By Alex Perry and Chad Iriba
. . . The Sahara is advancing steadily south, smothering soil with sand. Rainfall has been declining in the region for the past half-century, according to the National Center for Atmospheric Research. In Darfur there are too many people in a hot, poor, shrinking land, and it's not hard to start a fight in a place like that.
The Guardian (London, UK) (April 26, 2007) circ. 378,703
By Ian Sample
. . . Two of the books highlight environmental issues: Robert Henson's Rough Guide to Climate Change, and Henry Nicholls's Lonesome George. The latter unravels the history of a conservation icon, a 200lb giant tortoise, aged somewhere between 60 and 200, which was rescued from a remote Galapagos island, threatened by knife-wielding protesters, and has steadfastly refused to produce sperm, despite the efforts of a Swiss graduate student. . . The six contenders . . . The Rough Guide to Climate Change (Rough Guides) Robert Henson, writer and editor at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
. . . Some new projects could help monitor risks to human health. For example, one mission designed to monitor soil moisture may contribute to more reliable forecasts of vector-borne disease outbreaks. The recommended missions could be run within the amount that Nasa spent for Earth science eight years ago, the NRC concludes. "It's clearly affordable," says Richard Anthes from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, one of the report's co-lead authors.
"To do the entire programme would cost the American public $2 per person per year." None of the recommended new missions is slated for funding under President Bush's proposed 2008 budget.
. . . Kevin Trenberth, climate analysis chief at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said mankind already has harmed Earth's climate inadvertently, so it's foolish to think that people can now fix it with a few drastic measures. But at Trenberth's same Boulder, Colo., research center, climate scientist Tom Wigley is exploring that mock volcano idea. "It's the lesser of two evils here (the other being doing nothing)," Wigley said. "Whatever we do, there are bad consequences, but you have to judge the relative badness of all the consequences."
Morning Drive Time
KQED-FM 88.5 (NPR/APR) San Francisco (April 23, 2007) DMA: 5 06:00 AM - 9:00 AM
00:50:20 A Scripps Institution of Oceanography and National Center for Atmospheric Research study is underway to determine the impact of Asian air pollution on the California climate. SB; National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist Jeff Stith explains the technology being used to study cloud plumes. Ed Joyce of KPBS reporting. 00:51:43
San Francisco Chronicle (April 23, 2007) circ. 398,246
By David Perlman
. . . A team from UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., began successful test flights last week aboard the government's newest high-altitude research aircraft. Within a few days, the team's leaders say, the Gulfstream V plane, financed by the National Science Foundation, will head to Anchorage, Alaska, and from there will fly over the ocean to Yokota Air Base near Tokyo on the first leg of its six-week mission capturing plume samples. The plumes of particles, still poorly understood, are so huge that they are among the largest weather-influencing events on Earth. They are caused by combination of factors. . . . Ramanathan and Jeffrey Stith, a cloud physicist at National Center for Atmospheric Research, are chief scientists for the airborne mission called PACDEX, the Pacific Dust Experiment. On each flight, one of the two will join other researchers aboard the plane, while the other leads a ground-support team providing updated information from computer models and satellite data.
St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (April 23, 2007) circ. 323,031
By Bill Adair
. . . Indeed, scientists acknowledge that there are benefits from global warming. They noted at a news conference last week that some apples taste better because the growing season is longer. And as the Earth warms, frigid locales will be more temperate and presumably more desirable. But the scientists who wrote the IPCC study say they are concerned because the Earth has been warming so fast. "With just a small increase in the average temperature, you get a big increase in the extremes," said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and a lead author of the IPCC study.
San Diego Union-Tribune (April 22, 2007) circ. 334,283
By Mike Lee
. . . Plans are for the Gulfstream V, owned by the National Science Foundation, to fly from near Boulder, Colo., to Anchorage, Alaska. From there, it will head to Japan and then reverse course. “This is not the first (study) to look at Asian emissions, but it is the first one to go across the Pacific,” said Jeff Stith, co-chief scientist from the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “We are not sure we are going to succeed yet.”
New Scientist (London, UK) (April 20, 2007) circ. 147,278
By Phil McKenna
. . . The Pacific Dust Experiment, led by researchers at Scripps and the US National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, aims to collect data that will shed light on exactly how the plumes affect climate change. Sulphate particles in the plumes are known to reflect sunlight back into space, shading and cooling the earth in a process known as global dimming. Other particles, known as black carbon, an impure form of carbon formed as a byproduct of the combustion of coal and other fuels, absorb the sun’s rays and warm the atmosphere.
Boulder Daily Camera (April 19, 2007) circ. 33,000
A new study led by Boulder's National Center for Atmospheric Research will track plumes of dust and pollution from Asia as they blow across the Pacific Ocean and potentially affect the global climate. The Pacific Dust Experiment, which also involves scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, will begin in late April and last two months, according to a news release.
. . . Boulder’s Community Earth Day Festival is Saturday, April 21. It combines adventure and environment, celebrating the world at our fingertips and it's dirt in our hands. Wild Earth Saturday featuring Dirt Days is hosted by the Wild Bear Center for Nature Discovery, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and University Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR/UCAR), and the Boulder Adventure Film Festival. This action-packed day of hands-on environmental education and outdoor adventure is free to the public and takes place from 10 a.m. -4 p.m. Saturday at NCAR’s Mesa Lab, nestled in the Flatirons, located at 1850 Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. In celebration of Earth Day and International Polar Year, NCAR opens its doors and grounds for a day of fun under the sun.
. . . Even though many scientists have said that global warming would hurt developing countries the most because they lack the means to adapt quickly, several scientists said yesterday that rich countries would face significant problems as well.
"None of us will escape the impacts of climate change," said Patricia Romero Lankao , one of the report's authors and a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit group based in Boulder, Colo. The newly released review also found that rising temperatures in the United States would diminish snow accumulations and increase water evaporation, threatening rivers, lakes, and other water sources.
St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (April 17, 2007) circ. 323,031
By Bill Adair
. . . The warmer weather has altered the migration and breeding patterns of many species. Along the east coast of the United States, 28 bird species are nesting earlier. The Edith's Checkerspot butterfly, a species found in the Western portion of North America, is dying out in Mexico but found more in Canada. Schneider said many other species, such as the Florida scrub jay, could be vulnerable to future habitat changes as other animals - and people - relocate because of the warmer climate. Patricia Romero Lankao, a researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said the study shows an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gases. She said, "We need to act - yesterday."
San Jose Mercury News (April 17, 2007) circ. 274,382
By Frank Davies
. . . Several scientists said they hope the accumulated findings will lead to urgent governmental action to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that are a major contributor to global warming. Nine scientists today will brief senators on the findings at a meeting of the Environment and Public Works Committee, chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. "No one in the United States will escape the effects of climate change. Every individual and industry will be affected," said Patricia Romero Lankao, a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "We must reduce emissions, and the sooner we act the better. It would have been better to act yesterday." The global IPCC report found that some of the most negative impacts of global warming will hit those already very vulnerable - poor people in the developing world.
News2 at Nine
KWGN-TV CH 2 (CW) Denver (April 16, 2007) DMA: 18
By Jason Boyer
00:22:47 TZ; Governor Ritter: CO Governor Ritter announced he will change the name of The Office of Energy Management and Conservation to The Governor’s Energy Office. SB; Ritter introduces Heidi VanGenderen as Climate Change Advisor and announces environment goals. I; VanGenderen explains primary focus of job. V; Governor signing orders. V; exterior of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. I; Kathleen Miller, research scientist at NCAR, comments on climate changes in CO. Jason Boyer reporting. 00:24:45
The Weather Channel's 5 day series 100 Biggest Weather Moments features several people from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Tim Spangler, Nancy Knight and Charles Knight are featured in the first hour. The second hour features Richard Anthes, Tim Killeen, Elisabeth Holland and Bob Henson. Bob Henson, Elisabeth Holland, Tim Spangler, Tim Killeen, Roger Wakimoto, Charles Knight, Matt Kelsch, and Richard Anthes are featured in the third hour. Bob Henson, Elisabeth Holland, and Roger Wakimoto are featured in the fourth hour. Hour five features Tim Killeen, Richard Anthes, Warren Washington and Roberta Johnson.
Boulder Daily Camera (April 13, 2007) circ. 33,000
By Todd Neff
. . . "I think that it's beyond my expertise to say exactly what should be done," said UCAR president Rick Anthes. "But I think it's well within my expertise to say the scientific issues are significant enough and proven enough that it is really time now to begin taking a number of actions in terms of both mitigation and adaptation."
. . . The goal would be to provide the same kind of public information on climate that the Weather Service provides for snow and rain, said Conrad Lautenbacher, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. . . . NASA will spend about $1.5 billion on climate-change science this year, a sum that has been declining since 2000, according to a National Research Council study released in January. Rick Anthes, co-chairman of the group of scientists that produced that report, said the funding decline threatens to limit the country's ability to monitor future climate change. "This is a very serious problem at a time when the climate is changing faster than it has in history, and the impacts are going to be significant," said Anthes, president of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder.
Wall Street Journal (April 10, 2007) circ. 2,049,786
By Jim Carlton
. . . If a heat problem persists or worsens, a business ultimately may have to build a new facility. Stand-alone data centers can cost upward of $10 million. Managers of a computer center for the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., have been adding more air-conditioning units to attack their heat problem. Typically, the units are mounted against walls so the cool air can fan out across the room. But after adding five big air conditioners to an existing seven, the managers at the U.S. government facility said design issues of the building and other factors make it so they won't be able to keep the 7,200-square-foot room cool enough much longer without expanding to a new site.
. . . Attention is now shifting from arguments over whether the world is warming to what should be done about it. . . . "No one will escape the impacts of a warming planet," says Patricia Romero Lankao, a sociologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and an author of the report.
. . . Other effects are anticipated as well: increased flooding of coastal regions, a rise in malnutrition and disease, and exacerbated water shortages in already dry regions, among others. "The glaciers that [people in Pakistan] depend upon are predicted to disappear in 35 years or so. This is not that far off," says Kathleen Miller, a lead author for the report and scientist with the Institute for the Study of Society and Environment at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "We've got some real humanitarian crises looming on the horizon."
Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) (April 8, 2007) circ. 398,329
By Kitta MacPherson
. . . He is sort of a shy guy, who once imagined he could spend his life tucked away at a university or think tank, quietly contemplating cool stuff out in space, like the Van Allen radiation belts. Fate, it seems, had something different in store for astrophysicist James E. Hansen. . . . Hansen caused another media frenzy in 2006 when he revealed that he had been muzzled by NASA for speaking a little too loudly and consistently about the perils of climate change. "Here's the thing," said Hansen's friend and fellow climate scientist Jerry Mahlman, the former director of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton. "We're both from the Midwest. So, sure we're polite, but we are not afraid to speak up. Not ever."
. . . In May, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations-sponsored consortium of scientists, will release its third report this year, Mitigation of Climate Change, a survey of measures that could be taken to combat warming. . . . "It's clear that the heart of climate change issues has shifted … to figuring out what we can do to reduce the impact," says climate scientist Linda Mearns, director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Institute for the Study of Society and Environment.
Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) (April 7, 2007) circ. 398,329
By Kitta MacPherson
. . . The study's authors focused on what is happening and what will occur as a result of climate change. They listed areas where society is especially vulnerable and enumerated options for adapting to climate change. "This is all about who gets clobbered by global warming," said Jerry Mahlman, a physicist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado. "This hits humanity in the proverbial gut."
. . . In particular, U.S. negotiators managed to eliminate language in one section that called for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, said Patricia Romero Lankao, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., who was one of the report's lead authors. . . NCAR scientist Kathleen Miller -- a lead author of the chapter on fresh water resources -- said she is confident that dry regions such as the American Southwest will experience more drought in future decades, but it is hard to predict how severe the changes will be. "The extent of the damage will depend on how much warming we experience, and how rapidly it proceeds," Miller said.
. . . Despite its harsh vision, the report was quickly criticized by some scientists who said its findings were watered down at the last minute by governments seeking to deflect calls for action. . . . Susanne Moser, a research scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., said the political changes to the report do not diminish the need for action. "When you have it this black and white, it is very hard to deny the reality and continue to do nothing," she said. "I don't know how you do that if you have a moral bone in your body."
. . . The forecasts were based on the latest international assessment of the impacts of climate change released Friday in Brussels, Belgium, and discussed via teleconference by a team of five researchers with the Boulder-based National Center for Atmospheric Research who contributed to the report. . . . In Colorado, warming is likely to deplete snowpack and lead to earlier melt-off in spring, creating a ripple effect in the forest by drying up soil moisture, leaving trees more susceptible to insect damage and wildfires. "The melting snowpack is also going to increase wildfire activity, and Denver is probably the poster child for that," said Kathleen Miller, an NCAR scientist who wrote a chapter on global warming's impact on fresh water.
San Francisco Chronicle (April 7, 2007) circ. 398,246
By Jane Kay
. . . No one of us will escape the impacts of climate change,'' said Patricia Romero Lankao, a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, speaking from Brussels where the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is meeting. Four decades of research from scientists around the world show that the poorest societies in the arid regions of the world -- the ones contributing the least to greenhouse gas emissions -- are likely to be hardest hit. They lack the means to deal with water shortages from droughts and other natural disasters, she said.
. . . In advance of a 1,572-page report of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the contributing scientists said the West is beginning to experience a dual crisis of dramatic population increases combined with soaring temperatures. "Nature's water reservoir in the West will be much diminished because of melting snow packs and drought, while at the same time, there will be many more people needing the water," said Dr. Linda Mearns, one of more than 2,500 scientists who contributed to the report summary released Friday in Brussels, Belgium. "And it's not just drinking water. Recreation, including the ski industry, will take a hit," she said.
Global warming will mean a drier American West, with worse droughts, more forest fires and more intense heat waves, according to the report issued Friday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. . . . "In many cases, global warming will interact with other factors to make them worse," said Patricia Romero Lankao, a National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist, during a teleconference from Brussels. . . . Mountain snowpack will probably shrink as skies dump rain rather than snow, triggering earlier spring runoff. That would have diverse consequences, scientists say.
"Snowpack is nature's reservoir, and we're essentially pulling the plug on that reservoir," said Kathleen Miller, an NCAR scientist and author of the report's chapter about freshwater resources. . . . To complete the vicious cycle, fires tend to dump sediment into reservoirs and gum up water-treatment facilities, putting further pressure on water supply, she said.
. . . Among the hardest-hit places will be areas of Africa where arid climates will dry out further, threatening starvation; and poorer regions of Asia that face threats of rising seas, diminishing freshwater supplies and more virulent disease. In Africa, up to 250 million people are likely to be exposed to water shortages by 2020. In some countries, food production could fall by half, the report said. Yet the rich-poor divide is nothing new, said Michael Glantz, a senior scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research who has studied the impacts of climate on society since the early 1970s.
"The poor are suffering now," Glantz said. "We don't help them now. Why is that going to change with climate change?"
Glantz and others said the United States — the world's largest economy — is ill-prepared for what appears to be in store, citing 2005's Hurricane Katrina as an example of how a weather-related disaster can overwhelm an entire region.
Susanne Moser, an NCAR scientist and author of the report, said 53 percent of the U.S. population lives in counties bordering the ocean and that 23 of the 25 fastest-growing counties are on coasts, which she called "particularly vulnerable to stresses from climate change."
The global warming debate sits at an uneasy crossroads where science and politics meet -- and, as you might imagine, the scientists and the politicians don't always work well together. . . . From USA TODAY's Patrick O'Driscoll: "Patricia Romero Lankao, a sociologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., confirmed that delegates from the United States, China and Saudi Arabia forced the writers of the report summary to "downplay" the level of certainly about the damage to the environment and species by human-caused warming. “That was a really hard discussion,” Romero Lankao told O'Driscoll in a telephone conference call from Brussels.
ABC World News
World News with Charles Gibson (ABC) (April 6, 2007) DMA: 0 06:30 PM - 07:00 PM
By Bill Blakemore
00:02:44 Dire warning: A report released on global warming today says that the immediate effects of warming cannot be changed. V; smoke stack giving off smoke. V; Linda Mearns, National Center for Atmospheric Research, says the problem is considered serious, certain, and soon. V; Himalayan mountains, courtesy of NASA, GSFC, JPL, MISR. PC; Richard Moss, UN Climate Panel, says they now have empirical, measurable information on warming. GR; graphic of greenhouse gases. Moss says ecosystems and species face extinction. I; Richard Moss, Climate Director, UN Foundation, says providing poor countries with assistance on adapting can help avoid the worst humanitarian disasters. Bill Blakemore reporting from NY. 00:05:22
That's the operative quote to us from Linda Mearns of the Natonal Center for Atmospheric Research, after the IPCC delivered this morning: "The problem is now recognized as being serious, certain and soon."
00:14:34 TZ; Global warming: A United Nations report on global warming says things will be bad for poor people and animals. SB; Ben Dunham, US PIRG, says parts of the report are like the book of Revelations. V; polar bear, moose. V; flood and storm scenes, desert, smoke stacks, farm. SB; President Bush says new technology is expensive. SB; Linda Mearns, National Center for Atmospheric Research, spoke about emissions, climate. 00:16:47
. . . "If a government doesn't react to this (report), it could be considered negligence," said Susanne Moser, a geographer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado and a contributing author to the document. "It's a fairly bleak picture." . . .
By the Associated Press, Dan Vergano and Patrick O'Driscoll
. . . Patricia Romero Lankao, a sociologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., confirmed to USA TODAY that delegates from the United States, China and Saudi Arabia forced the writers of the report summary to "downplay" the level of certainly about the damage to the environment and species by human-caused warming. "That was a really hard discussion," she said.
. . . For the U.S., the biggest problem would be water shortages. The seven Colorado River Basin states — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and California — would battle each other for diminished river flows. Mexico, which has a share of the Colorado River under a 1944 treaty and has complained of U.S. diversions in the past, would join the struggle. Inevitably, water would be reallocated from agriculture, which uses most of the West's supply, to urban users, drying up farms. California would come under pressure to build desalination plants on the coast, despite environmental concerns. "This is a situation that is going to cause water wars," said Kevin Trenberth, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "If there's not enough water to meet everybody's allocation, how do you divide it up?"
. . . Although haggling over the fine print diluted some of the original language, the final report is stark in its depiction of what's in store for the planet: flooding, droughts, extinctions of plants and animals, and high costs for everyone. . . . But scientists who wrote the report wanted to say they had "very high confidence" in their findings. That means they think they have a nine out of 10 chance of being right. That started a fight, according to Patricia Romero Lankao, one of the scientific authors, who works at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "Some countries, like China and Saudi Arabia, didn't want to accept our statement that it was very likely that global warming was causing those impacts on physical and biological systems," Lankao said. . . . Despite the compromises, the final document makes it clear that big impacts are on the way, and that the world is already changing. "Examples are earlier melting of lake ice in the Great Lakes and later freezing; plants, flowers blooming sooner; the migratory patterns of birds changing — mostly distinctly through the second half of the 20th century," says climate scientist Linda Mearns, also from the atmospheric center in Colorado, who contributed to the study.
National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation (April 06, 2007) DMA: 0 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
The Supreme Court rules that the EPA can regulate auto emissions of greenhouse gases. And a new report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change predicts increased hunger, water shortages and massive floods as the world's temperature rises. . . . Linda Mearns, senior scientist, director of the Institute for the Study of Society and Environment; National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Islands can be tropical oases, fishing communities or homes to rare life forms. But they can also be case studies: dots on a map suffering the early consequences of global climate change. Ongoing research suggests that low-lying islands are among the environment's most severely affected by climate change. Ilan Kelman, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Center for Capacity Building, applies current climatic data to determine which of the world's islands are likely to be affected by climate change first, what the impacts may be and how to handle the associated problems.
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana) (April 6, 2007) circ. 252,799
By Mark Schleifstein
. . . The report confirms that the evidence of the impacts of climate change is sharper and more reliable, said Patricia Romero-Lankao, a sociologist and assistant director of the Institute for the Study of Society and Environment at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, during a telephone news conference on the report. "No one will escape the impacts of a warming climate, and in many cases, that impact will combine with other problems and make them worse," said Romero-Lankao, who was a lead author on a report chapter on the effects of global warming on industry and human settlement. She called in to the news conference from Brussels, where she participated in final editing of the report. The report emphasizes that global warming must now be considered for its potential to add to the effects of non-climate concerns already facing world governments, said Linda Mearns, director of the NCAR institute and a lead author of a chapter on future conditions in the new report. "In addition to the effects of global warming, we'll be facing increased human population, air pollution and land degradation," Mearns said during a telephone news conference on Friday.
. . . To learn more about this idea of a “consensus,” Earth & Sky emailed climate scientists earlier this week. We asked, “What does it mean to have a consensus from scientists on the subject of global warming?” . . . There will always be a marginal fringe in most aspects of science. Statistically speaking, most researchers are content at the 99% or even 95% level of certainty. By design, this means that they may be wrong, but only at worst 5 times in a hundred - John Kermond is a UCAR visiting scientist with NOAA’s Climate Program Office.
. . . The Southwestern droughts of the past several dozen years are totally different from those that will occur as the planet warms, scientists discovered in a study published today in the journal Science. "The future changes, they are something we haven't seen before," said Jian Lu, co-author of the study and a researcher with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. "It is hard to find any resemblance to them in the past, so we can't take much experience from the past," Lu said. The study considered part of Colorado as being in the Southwest.
. . . The summary was released on Friday in Brussels by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). "In many cases global warming will interact with other environmental problems to make them worse," said Patricia Romero Lankao of the Institute for the Study of Society and Environment at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). . . . Some of the woes coastal areas face include sea level rise, storm flooding, losses of wetlands and mangroves, coral bleaching and salt water intruding into freshwater aquifers. "All these will increase from global warming," said Susanne Moser, lead author of Coastal Systems chapter of the IPCC assessment, and a researcher at NCAR. "There is no good news in the coastal chapter." . . . Canada and Russia, for instance, are already seeing longer growing seasons and more rainfall. That means more agricultural benefits, and perhaps more hydropower in those countries, explained Kathleen Miller, another NCAR researcher and lead author of the Fresh Water Resources chapter of the IPCC assessment. . . . Knowing what may be in store is also helping governments and businesses begin the process of managing the risks involved, explained Linda Mearns, also an NCAR researcher and lead author of the chapter on Methodologies and Future Conditions. "We need to put more of an effort into what we can do about climate change," said Mearns. That effort appears to have begun, she said.
. . . The drought projections come one day before the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world body on global warming, releases its latest report on the effects of a changing climate. . . . Researchers from the federal government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Princeton University, the private National Center for Atmospheric Research, and Tel Aviv University also participated.
63 News
WMBC-TV CH 63 (IND) New York (April 5, 2007) DMA: 1 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
00:29:31 Global warming: There is a new report on global warming from the United Nations. V; scientists. I; Linda Mearns, National Center for Atmospheric Research, talks about global warming. V; water. V; droughts. V; polar bear. I; Camille Parmesan, biologist, talks about global warming. I; Richard Kaufman, environmental scientist, talks about climate change. David Mattingly reporting. 00:32:18
. . . Only a handful of cities or states have begun projects or adopted regulations to accommodate higher temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, sea level rise, and longer growing seasons. . . . Even in the United States, climate experts say, without federal direction it can be difficult for local governments to respond. Many have never planned 100 years into the future. And officials may have more immediate priorities or lack the expertise to know how to prepare.
"People are overwhelmed, they don't have a legal mandate or resources to deal with it," said Susanne Moser, a geographer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado and a contributing author to tomorrow's IPCC report. "But we need to."
New Scientist (London, UK) (April 5, 2007) circ. 147,278
By Michael Reilly
The western US may be heading towards a return to the dustbowl landscape that devastated the prairies of the 1930s, climatologists warn. . . . "Since the late 1990s, precipitation has trended downward in much of the western US," says Aiguo Dai of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, US. "But over the last 50 years, much of the US, including the west has [seen] increased precipitation."
. . . Scientists say heat waves are already increasing as Earth’s climate warms. Linda Mearns: One of the most dramatic effects it has had is indeed in terms of increased frequency of heat waves and the effect that has on human health. That was Linda Mearns, a climate scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado and an author on a recent report by scientists from around the globe who are working with the IPCC, or Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Mearns spoke of a coast-to-coast heat wave in the U.S. in 2006, in which over 200 people died of heat stroke.
Anderson Cooper 360
CNN (April 4, 2007) DMA: 0 11:00 PM - 12:00 AM
00:46:32 Planet in Peril: Their Planet in Peril series continues tonight. They are talking about global warming. GR; Planet in Peril. I; Linda Mearns, National Center Atmospheric Research, talks about global warming. GR; Is Time Running Out? I; Camille Parmesan, biologist, talks about the predictions. V; wildlife. I; Richard Kaufmann, environmental scientist, talks about who will benefit over the climate change. V; Boston University. David Mattingly, reporting from Atlanta. 00:49:44
Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, California) (April 3, 2007) circ. 185,036 San Francisco Chronicle (April 2, 2007) circ. 398,246 Sacramento Bee (April 2, 2007) circ. 295,921 San Jose Mercury News (April 2, 2007) circ. 274,382 plus 5 other outlets
(Associated Press)
. . . "People are worried, there's a readiness to take action, but hardly anything is being done," said researcher Susanne Moser of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.
She surveyed 300 planners, public works engineers and other officials from city and county governments last year and discovered only the city of Berkeley and counties of Sonoma and San Luis Obispo had considered the impact of global warming.
California's plan to restrict greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks cleared a major obstacle Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration has both the authority and the duty to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. . . . Susanne Moser, a research scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., said the political and legal delays embodied in Monday's ruling ultimately raise the stakes in responding to climate change. "The challenges we're facing are considerable," she said, "and we shouldn't be nonchalant and postpone everything."
. . . Researchers involved in the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate said Friday's chapter will also emphasize disparities in rich and poor countries' abilities to deal with climate problems, and similar inequities within countries.
"Hurricane Katrina was a very good example," said Susan [sic] Moser, a geographer with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. "The poorest folks couldn't get out of the city. They didn't have the means of transportation, they didn't have the resources to rebuild," Moser said. "That will carry forward into the future."
. . . While spring is in the air, a citizen science project across North America needs your help. It’s called Project Budburst, and the idea is as simple as going outside and taking a walk in nature. As you walk, you’ll look for and record blooms and leaves that are easy to find in a neighborhood or local park. Then you’ll share what you find on the internet at budburst.org. . . . Project Budburst is a collaborative effort of the Chicago Botanic Garden, Plant Conservation Alliance, ESRI, National Science Foundation, National Phenology Network, UCAR Office of Education and Outreach, University of Arizona, University of Montana, University of California – Santa Barbara, University of Wisconsin – Madison, and Windows to the Universe. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management provided funding for the spring 2007 event.
. . . While such large-scale changes to our planet cannot be easily detected by the casual observer, they can spot unusual weather and changes occurring in their local environment. . . . Linking weird weather to climate change is not completely without merit, though, as studies from both the US National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Washington, US, predict that a changing climate is likely to result in more weather extremes.
. . . The report takes the cold physical conclusions of the first report and translates them into biological, environmental and human terms. Whereas the first report said warmer average global temperatures will trigger heat waves, the second considers the impact of heat stress on humans and the environment, said Linda Mearns, a senior scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder and lead author of a chapter of the report. Three others from NCAR also worked on the report: scientists Patricia Romero Lankao and Susanne Moser, and economist Kathleen Miller. . . . Managers cited a lack of money, legal mandates and state and federal support. . . . "That is a really important finding if you think of the illusion that we're a rich country and will be able to do what's necessary," Moser said. "We're not ready." Michael Glantz, an NCAR senior scientist who has studied the societal impacts of climate phenomena since the early 1970s, agreed. "One of the myths is that developing countries are more at risk than developed countries," Glantz said.
New York Times (April 1, 2007) circ. 1,142,464 Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota) (April 1, 2007) circ. 330,000 Seattle Times (April 1, 2007) circ. 234,274
By Andrew Revkin
. . . Michael H. Glantz, an expert on climate hazards at the National Center for Atmospheric Research who has spent two decades pressing for more work on adaptation to warming, has called for wealthy countries to help establish a center for climate and water monitoring in Africa, run by Africans. But for now, he says he is doubtful that much will be done. “The third world has been on its own,” he said, “and I think it pretty much will remain on its own.”
. . . Gray, a Colorado State University researcher best known for his annual forecasts of hurricanes along the U.S. Atlantic coast, also said increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere won't produce more or stronger hurricanes. . . . "There's no way that doubling CO2 is going to cause that amount of warming," he said. Kevin Trenberth, head of climate analysis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, said natural changes in the environment cannot account for the magnitude of global warming in the past four decades. "Since about 1970, the global temperature change is outside of the range of natural variability," he said in an interview. . . . "Global warming is pervasive. It has an influence on everything," Trenberth said. "It has an influence on ocean currents, it has an influence on hurricanes, it has an influence on rainfall."
Eyewitness News
WJXT-TV CH 4 (IND) Jacksonville/Brunswick (April 27, 2007) DMA: 50 05:30 AM - 06:00 AM
00:24:46 When hurricanes threaten, time is critical in making forecasts to save lives and property. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research have taken another step in better predicting how strong a hurricane will be and where it will strike. David Parsons, “Events with damage of a billion dollars per event are getting to be much, much more common. So really, a few thousand dollars spent on these measurements or even millions spent on research can be very cost effective.” 00:27:46
. . . Miller is one of only two 5th grade teachers in Oregon working with the GLOBE program. Student data is compiled and figures are plugged in to the GLOBE website. Right now a few students are entering data, and eventually the goal is to have all students trained in data entry, though Baker said efforts are hampered by limited access to technology. The GLOBE Program (Global Learning and Observing to Benefit the Environment) is an international program that uses "kid data" to see what is actually happening on the ground. They monitor water, weather, soil, land cover, etc. to track the health of the environment. The hydrology data will be entered on the computer and shared with scientists at NOAA and NASA and the like.
Boulder Daily Camera (April 24, 2007) circ. 33,000
Gov. Bill Ritter is scheduled to talk about his priorities for the state economy, where Boulder fits into his vision and other topics as the keynote speaker for the Boulder Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner on Thursday. . . . The event will be at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, 3085 Center Green Drive.
. . . Doug Wesley drove from Golden to participate in the vigil. Wesley proudly wore a Virginia Tech sweatshirt and hat to represent his alma mater. Wesley grew up in Blacksburg, Va., and earned his bachelor's degree in engineering from Virginia Tech in 1983. He moved to Colorado after college and now works for the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "It's tough," Wesley said. "I was in disbelief and shocked at first, and then reality set in."
Boulder Daily Camera (April 20, 2007) circ. 33,000
By Jeremy Ryan
Organizers of a festival this weekend say they're attempting to grow Boulder's Earth Day celebration into the biggest on the Front Range. There's an Earth Day celebration hosted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as an event at the National Center for Atmospheric Research called "Wild Earth Saturday featuring Dirt Days."
Today In Wyoming
KCWY-TV CH 13 (NBC) Casper/Riverton (April 20, 2007) DMA: 198 06:00 AM - 07:00 AM
00:08:34 The National Center for Atmospheric Research and the cowboy state have joined forces to create a new science center. The University of Wyoming’s Vice President of Research and Economic Development, Bill Gern, spoke to the Casper Rotary Club members about the project. The new supercomputing data center is expected to be built west of Cheyenne. It’s supposed to house some of the world’s most powerful computers to help us understand climate, weather and other global and atmospheric activities. “It is amazing that it is in Wyoming. It is a great tribute to the people who work really hard to get this thing sited here.” Construction on the supercomputing data center is expected to start this year and be open by 2011. 00:11:34
. . . In the Southwest, even after rains, major reservoirs may not return to their full capacity. An El Niño event during the winter of 2004 brought some relief to the region, “but it still left the big lakes, Lake Powell and Lake Mead, well below normal, and so from a hydrological standpoint, the drought really didn’t end at that time. It just stopped getting worse,” said Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
. . . The industry acclaimed event was created by The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism (BMOT) in 1997 to educate attendees about prominent weather issues and the geography of The Islands of The Bahamas in advance of the hurricane season. . . . Video features include many of the highlights of the conference including a spirited academic debate about Global Warming. Dr. [Richard] Anthes of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research contended it's easier to find people who still believe the world is flat than those who do not believe in Global Warming, but renowned forecaster Dr. Gray of Colorado State University is still not convinced.
Daily Reflector (Greenville, North Carolina) (April 20, 2007) circ. 20,568
By Jimmy Ryals
Reading the title screen of his PowerPoint presentation Thursday, Kevin Trenberth's point wasn't hard to miss: "Global Warming is Unequivocal." Trenberth, head of the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., backed his contention with slide after slide of data, on rising global temperatures and sea levels, higher levels of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere and resulting upticks in hurricane activity and intensity.
. . . The researchers want to determine the impact of the plumes, which are so great in scope they might affect clouds and weather conditions across thousands of miles. Known as PACD
