Climate Change

washingtonpost.com - by Brian McNoldy and Jason Samenow - September 9, 2018

 . . . “There is an increasing risk of two life-threatening impacts from Florence: Storm surge at the coast and freshwater flooding from a prolonged heavy rainfall event inland,” the National Hurricane Center wrote Sunday . . . We are particularly concerned about the rainfall potential in the Mid-Atlantic. Models have come into agreement that a northward turn before reaching the United States is unlikely and that a building high-pressure zone north of the storm will cause it to slow or stall once it reaches the coast or shortly thereafter.

Florence could sit over some part of the Mid-Atlantic for several days, similar to what Harvey did last year over eastern Texas. It has the potential to dump unthinkable amounts of rain over a large area in the Mid-Atlantic and perhaps into the Northeast. Rainfall could begin Friday or Saturday and continue into the following week. Where exactly the zone of heaviest rain sets up is a big uncertainty. It could reasonably occur anywhere between the mountains and the coast . . . 

CLICK HERE - STUDY - PNAS - Social learning and partisan bias in the interpretation of climate trends

techcrunch.com - by Devin Coldewey - September 3, 2018

Some topics are so politically charged that even to attempt a discussion online is to invite toxicity and rigid disagreement among participants. But a new study finds that exposure to the views of others, minus their political affiliation, could help us overcome our own biases.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, led by sociologist Damon Centola, examined how people’s interpretations of some commonly misunderstood climate change data changed after seeing those of people in opposing political parties.

The theory is that by exposing people to information sans partisan affiliation, we might be able to break the “motivated reasoning” that leads us to interpret data in a preconceived way.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

A Princeton glaciologist says a set of mega-engineering projects may be able to stabilize the world’s most dangerous glaciers.

CLICK HERE - West Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse – The Fall and Rise of a Paradigm

theatlantic.com - by Robinson Meyer - January 11, 2018

 . . . What if scientists could prevent one catastrophic symptom of climate change—a rapid rise in global sea level, for instance—without messing again with the weather?

Michael Wolovick, a glaciology postdoc at Princeton University, believes it may be possible.

For the past two years, Wolovick has studied whether a set of targeted geo-engineering projects could hold off the worst sea-level rise for centuries, giving people time to adapt to climate change and possibly reverse it.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

People take part in protests ahead of a G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany July 2, 2017. Placard reads "Global Warming is NOT a Myth". REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo

CLICK HERE - STUDY - PNAS - Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene

reuters - by Nina Chestney - August 6, 2018

The world is at risk of entering “hothouse” conditions where global average temperatures will be 4-5 degrees Celsius higher even if emissions reduction targets under a global climate deal are met, scientists said in a study published on Monday . . .

 . . . Around 200 countries agreed in 2015 to limit temperature rise to “well below” 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial levels, a threshold believed to be a tipping point for the climate.

However, it is not clear whether the world’s climate can be safely “parked” near 2C above pre-industrial levels or whether this might trigger other processes which drive further warming even if the world stops emitting greenhouse gases, the research said . . .