Burning garbage, what a waste
News
Burning Trash Bad for Humans and Global
Warming
Climate Central via Scientific American
Some 1.1 billion tons of waste is burned in open piles,
potentially contributing more greenhouse gas emissions than
scientists previously thought. The National Centre for Atmospheric
Research provides the first comprehensive estimate of global
emissions from burning waste. It suggests five per cent of global
emissions could be attributed to waste, though it’s likely much
higher in particularly poor localities.
Climate and energy news
Stalled El Niño poised to
resurge
Researchers at Colombia University say there is a 75 per cent
chance there will be a weak to moderate El Nino weather event by
the end of the year. Scientists across all disciplines – from
marine biologists to meteorologists – are keenly watching for the
event to try and understand how it affects both past and future
climates. Nature News focuses on one scientist hoping to use the El
Nino to calibrate records of past climate that are preserved in
fossilized coral. Shifting ratios of oxygen isotopes captured in
coral layers can reveal changes in ocean temperature, providing a
record of El Niño events going back thousands of years, it
says.
Study links polar vortex chills to melting sea
ice
Shrinking ice caps could lead to more frequent cold snaps,
such as the polar vortex that engulfed North America last year, new
research suggests. Research by the Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory shows when there’s less ice, more energy gets into the
atmosphere and weakens the jet stream, meaning cold air escapes.
The article quotes a number of scientists discussing the “cutting
edge” and emerging research on how Arctic extremes affect the
weather.
As new climate change summit looms, UN environment
efforts still a mess, study says
The UN’s Joint Inspection Unit has released a report on the
state of the organisation’s environmental management, and it’s not
good news. It says management is opaque, priorities are skewed, and
efforts to tackle environmental problems including climate change
are uncoordinated, pushing up costs. The report concludes that
while “progress has been made”, “there is still much to
accomplish”.
Pro-fracking newspaper ad banned by Advertising
Standards Authority
Complaints over an advert by US energy company Breitling
promoting the prospects of a UK shale gas industry have been upheld
by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The advert claimed
that extracting natural gas from shale rock would mean: “decades
worth of natural gas”, “millions of pounds in tax revenues”,
“freedom from interruptions and stoppages as a result of Russia’s
political games with your gas supply”, “lowering energy prices for
millions” and “reducing greenhouse emissions by replacing coal with
natural gas for energy”. The ASA found the advert, which ran in the
Telegraph, exaggerated the extent of the UK’s shale resource and
the fledgling industry’s potential to boost the economy, the
Guardian reports.
‘Global warming has been on pause for 19 years’:
Study reveals Earth’s temperature has remained almost CONSTANT
since 1995
A new study suggests global temperatures haven’t risen for
between 16 and 26 years. The research is by professor Ross
McKitrick, a regular speaker at climate skeptic thinktank the
Heartland Institute’s annual conferences. He uses Hadcrut4 data to
show that climate models’ projections have been wrong, with 110 out
of 114 predicting a temperature rise, he says. “While the HadCRUT4
record clearly shows numerous pauses and dips amid the overall
upward trend, the ending hiatus is of particular note because
climate models project continuing warming over the period”, he
says. The article also quotes Anthony Watts, who runs climate
skeptic blog Watts Up With That.
Water stress may curtail fracking, says
WRI
38 per cent of the world’s shale oil and gas resources are in
arid areas, according to a World Resources Institute report.
Fracking – the process of blasting water and chemical into rocks to
release oil and gas – is very water intensive, with shortages
potentially hindering global efforts to extract the resources, the
report says. The institute identifies China, Algeria, Mexico, South
Africa, Libya, Pakistan, Egypt and India as places where water
stress could prevent large shale resources from being extracted.
“This analysis should serve as a wake-up call for countries seeking
to develop shale gas. Energy development and responsible water
management must go hand in hand”, the report says.
EPA May Force Drillers to Cut Methane Leaks, Chief
Says
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering
ways to force energy companies to cut methane emissions associated
with oil and gas exploration. The EPA has identified two clauses in
the Clean Air Act it could use to regulate the emissions, it says.
Methane is a greenhouse gas 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide,
leading to concerns that the US’s oil and gas boom is greatly
contributing to climate change.
Climate and energy comment
How we tricked E. coli bacteria into making
renewable propane
Scientists have found a way to turn renewable electricity
into a fuel that can be used for heat and transport, via a bacteria
best known for food poisoning: E.Coli. The bacteria was combined
with two other enzymes to turn the renewable electricity into
propane. A researcher from Imperial College London tells the
Conversation UK how it works.
Climate change threatens to put the fight against
hunger back by decades
By 2050 our ability to produce food – in particular, wheat –
may be lowered by up to 10 per cent due to rising air pollution,
according to new research. At the same time, global food demand is
set to rise 50 per cent, potentially leading to serious food
insecurity in some regions. The answer? Make rich countries consume
less, the research’s author says. Other experts dispute the
findings, however, saying other socio-economic factors are the
predominant drivers of food shortages.
Fire and water – how global warming is making
weather more extreme and costing us
money
Dana Nuccitelli looks at how climate change may be
influencing drought. First, he focuses on research that show how a
high pressure zone off the west coast or North America, known as
the “ridiculously resilient ridge”, has perpetuated California’s
intense drought. He then turns attention to a project by Peter
Stott of the UK Met Office which seeks to model climatic events to
better understand how climate change affects the probability of
extreme weather events.
New climate science
Weakening of the stratospheric polar vortex by
Arctic sea-ice loss
A new paper considers the link between Arctic sea-ice loss
and the recent severe cold winters experienced in Europe and North
America. They find that low sea-ice in November and December tends
to result in a negative phase of a natural fluctuation called the
Arctic Oscillation. This in turn causes low temperatures in the
mid-latitudes.
Long-term sea level trends: Natural or
anthropogenic?
Scientists analysed the longest tidal records worldwide to
find what proportion of sea-level rise could be attributed to
human-caused climate change. They found that the observed rise is
well beyond natural variability and show that climate change
accounts for at least 50 per cent of sea-level rise in New York,
Baltimore, San Diego, Marseille, and Mumbai.