»climate change«

With global warming the atmospheric pressure distribution will change and thus may lead to drier and colder winters in Europe - in 250-years time. Joachim Müller-Jung reports in FAZ (7.3.2006) that a German-Scandinavian team of climate scientists have modelled energy fluxes in the atmosphere and unravelled the dependence of the so-called North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) on global warming. The NAO describes the pressure system associated with the Iceland low and the Azores high. With a new combined ice-ocean-atmosphere model the researchers think to have a clue for future climate prediction.

A new simulation by supercomputers of the Max Planck Institute of meteorology shows the effects of global warming in Germany until the end of this century. On a grid with mesh width' as small as 10km by 10 km the researchers calculated climate change on a not-yet seen regional resolution, reports Gerald Traufetter in Der Spiegel (24.4.2006). The model predicts for some regions a temperature rise of up to 4 or 5 degrees Celsius. Average rain falls are the same, but the winters get more heavy rain, the summers are drier and hotter. For the region around Freiburg in Southwest Germany -- already the warmest place in Germany -- the temperature will rise by 3 degrees. East Germany will see a Mediterranean climate, snowfall in the Alps is declining. Who benefits: Well, the people along the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. The climate prediction model shall give evidence for various groups to react on the occurring climate change.

Tim Radford comments in the Guardian (3.8.2006) on proposals by Paul Crutzen to scatter sulphate particles in the upper atmosphere as a way of reducing global warming. Crutzen published his proposal in the August issue of Climatic Change. It's a good opportunity to get to know the new blog-like comment feature at the Guardian website Comment is free...but facts are sacred.
In an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio (2.8.2006) Crutzen responds to his critics. He says the most important point to combat global warming is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO2. But in politics almost nothing with relevance happens. He adds that his proposal is aiming at a principal investigation of sulphate particles in the stratosphere, side effects included.

The Independent (14.12.2006) gives a special report on greenhouse gas emissions and your personal carbon footprint. Some examples explain how to reduce it.

The temperature record is consistent from Iceland to Greece: Europe faces its warmest autumn since the year 1500. Quirin Schiermeier reports for Nature online (4.12.2006) on evidence for climate change and effects of a warmer climate on nature and the environment. "The change matches a trend. Autumn temperatures in Europe have been rising by about 0.45 °C per decade over the past three decades. The new data show that the past 30 years has been the warmest such period on record, and the past 10 years has been the warmest decade," writes Schiermeier.

Christopher Schrader writes in Süddeutsche Zeitung (28.9.2006) about the climate researcher James Hansen of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies who published a recent review on climate change. According to Hansen global average temperatures rise now at a rate of 0.2 degrees Celsius a decade. That's roughly according to Hansen's earlier predictions that were criticized heavily by novelist Michael Crichton in his book State of Fear. Hence, commentators regard Hansen's paper in first line as a rebuttal of Crichton's attack on the integrity of Hansen.

The principle of an environmental footprint is going economics. The footprint is a pictural expression of the impact on the environment of people, enterprises or whole national as the consume and use the environment or nature. Now the concept of footprints makes it into the corporate sector as carbon footprint. Companies pay an offset to a regular price of a product or service to compensate for CO2 release. The offset is, for instance, invested into environmental projects that bind the CO2 equivalent. Braden Phillips reports in the NY Times (18.9.2006) about first attempts of companies, banks or insurance companies, to compensate for CO2-release during flights. Air carriers or rental car companies make their service carbon neutral through travel options on its website.

The first year for the CO2 emissions trading scheme in the European Union passed and Quirin Schiermeier draws the lessons learned for Nature online (15.5.2006). Europe's major industry (9400 companies were engaged) emitted 44 million tonnes of CO2 less than they were allowed. How? Well, possibly the granted emissions allowances per company were higher that needed. Hence, there has been a surplus of allowances on the market and the cost per emitted ton of CO2 dropped from a high of 31 euros to 12 euros. "Critics say that the allocation of emission rights must now be significantly tightened for the 2008-2012 trade period, to avoid a market meltdown," writes Schiermeier.

The environmental correspondent of the Guardian (8.5.2006), John Vidal, explains what will happen to Britain after global warming has lifted average temperatures by three degrees Celsius. "It's hell."

Axel Bojanowski reports in Spiegel Online (28.7.2006) about a debate among climate researchers on the reliability and validity of the so called hockey stick graph. The diagram shows a significant increase in global average temperatures for the last thousand years. It's a cornerstone of for the global warming argument. Critics have pointed to the poor data the diagram is made of, but mostly have been put down by U.S. climate scientist Michael Mann who according to Bojanowski is a dominant figure in climate science. Mann testified at a hearing of the U.S. Congress. The hearing was about an evaluation report by the National Academy of Sciences commissioned by the Congress. This report gave Mann bad marks for scientific flaws. Note: None of the critics denies global warming and the human contribution. It's all about the scientific method and the dominance of one figure in the science circus. They just pay tribute to the simple fact the climate science is more complex than thought or than people, even scientists, believed.