'Overwhelming' consensus for manmade warming: review

A comprehensive assessment of climate change research has found an overwhelming consensus among scientists that recent warming is human-induced.

The study looked at 12,000 climate research papers from the last two decades, and identified 4,000 that stated a position on the cause of recent global warming.

Those papers, which were all published between 1991 and 2011, were written by more than 10,000 scientists.

Just over 97 per cent of the scientists agreed that man-made warming was a reality.

'Best estimate' for impact of melting ice on sea level rise

Researchers have published their most advanced calculation for the likely impact of melting ice on global sea levels.

The EU funded team say the ice sheets and glaciers could add 36.8 centimetres to the oceans by 2100.

Adding in other factors, sea levels could rise by up to 69 centimetres, higher than previous predictions.

The researchers say there is a very small chance that the seas around Britain could rise by a metre.

Beat me to it on the 97% story.

Thank you astroWX, Les, Mo, and Dave for your excellent post.

It looks like parts of the USA are already starting to "live in interesting times".

Extreme Weather Whiplash: 106� in Iowa on the Heels of Record May Snows

What the deniers of global climate change must deny

19 May 2013

If you are a real denier, you must close your eyes and ears and not read or hear or understand the truth that the oceans are getting hotter along with the rest of our planet. You must not believe this even though it's true.

"The atmosphere affects oceans, and oceans influence the atmosphere. As the temperature of the air rises, oceans absorb some of this heat and also become warmer.

"Overall, the world's oceans are warmer now than at any point in the last 50 years. The change is most obvious in the top layer of the ocean, which has grown much warmer since the late 1800s. This top layer is now getting warmer at a rate of 0.2�F per decade.

"Oceans are expected to continue getting warmer--both in the top layer and in deeper waters. Even if people stop adding extra greenhouse gases to the atmosphere now, oceans will continue to get warmer for many years as they slowly absorb extra heat from the atmosphere."

And as the oceans increase in temperature, the creatures in the sea do not have the luxury of denial. They are too busy focused on survival.

"For more than 30 years, ocean fish and mammals have migrated away from warming equatorial waters and toward the poles, providing more evidence climate change has already had broad global consequences.

"Fish and other sea life have been heading toward the Earth's poles for more than three decades, a mass migration to cooler waters that provides more evidence of a rapidly warming planet and has repercussions for fish harvests around the globe, according to a first-of-its-kind study released Wednesday.

"The study, in the journal Nature, found that significant numbers of 968 species of fish and invertebrates examined by University of British Columbia researchers moved to escape the warming waters of their original habitats.

"Previous studies had demonstrated the same phenomenon for specific places in the world's oceans. The authors said their research is the first to assess the migration worldwide and to look back as far as 1970.

"The research is more confirmation that 'global change is real and has been real for a long time. It's not something in the distant future. It is well underway,' said Boris Worm, a professor of marine biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who was not part of the study."

Finally, if you remain safely in your comfortable land of denial, you must not admit to yourself that global climate change will eventually crush every living ecosystem on Earth if we sit back and let it happen.

"Changing climatic conditions and dramatic increases in carbon dioxide will put our ecosystems to the test, threatening supplies of fresh water, clean air, fuel and energy resources, food, medicine and other matters we depend upon not just for our lifestyles but for our survival.

"Evidence shows effects of climate change on physical and biological systems, which means no part of the world is spared from the impact of changes to land, water and life. Scientists are already observing the bleaching and death of coral reefs due to warming ocean waters, as well as the migration of vulnerable plants and animals to alternate geographic ranges due to rising air and water temperatures and melting ice sheets.

"Models based on varied temperature increases predict scenarios of devastating floods, drought, wildfires, ocean acidification and eventual collapse of functioning ecosystems worldwide, terrestrial and aquatic alike.

"Forecasts of famine, war and death paint a dire picture of climate change on our planet. Scientists are researching the causes of these changes the vulnerability of Earth not to predict the end of days but rather to help us mitigate or reduce changes that may be caused by humans.

"If we know and understand the problems and take action through adaptation, the use of more energy-efficient and sustainable resources and the adoption of other green ways of living, we may be able to make some impact on the climate change process."

Or we can just keep on denying. It is our choice. It is our planet. It is our time.

Talk on radio this morning that the twister/tornado in America may be the strongest one the state has ever experienced. Logic tells me that this may or may not be related to climate change but my unscientific gut feeling says something different.

If this is the strongest tornado ever seen in the State of Oklahoma then it was truly awesome. Moore, Oklahoma ( center of the damage path) already held the record for the highest wind ever recorded. In 1999, a tornado with a wind speed of 318 mph struck Moore. If global warming is making these storms more powerful or more frequent or both then God help us all.

edited for typo.

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http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21829184.100?

We may have a few more years to do something??? Need to log in to read - available without subscription for 9 more days.

More bad news:

European forests near 'carbon saturation point'

UN climate change draft report finds it is 95 per cent likely that global warming is caused by humans

A leaked draft of a major United Nations climate change report has revealed scientists are almost certain human activity is causing global warming.

Drafts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) fifth assessment report says it is 95 per cent likely that humans were the principal cause of warming.

The findings mark a 5 per cent increase from 2007's fourth assessment report.

The document will also attempt to explain why the increase in global temperatures has slowed since 1998, despite greenhouse gas concentrations reaching record highs.

In May, a report published in the journal Nature Geoscience said the planet was warming slower in the short term than previously projected.

Global sea level rise temporarily dampened by 2010-11 Australia floods

Three atmospheric patterns came together above the Indian and Pacific Oceans in 2010 and 2011. When they did, they drove so much precipitation over Australia that the world's ocean levels dropped measurably.

Unlike other continents, the soils and topography of Australia prevent almost all its precipitation from flowing into the ocean.

The 2010-11 event temporarily halted a long-term trend of rising sea levels caused by higher temperatures and melting ice sheets, according to a team of researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., and other institutions.

Now that the atmosphere's circulation has returned to its previous patterns, the seas are again rising.

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6,000?? Give it a rest.

G�bekli Tepe is more than 10,000 years old. And quite intricate I might add.

Explain that!

Vulnerability of Polar Oceans to Anthropogenic Acidification: Comparison of Arctic and Antarctic Seasonal Cycles

Polar oceans are chemically sensitive to anthropogenic acidification due to their relatively low alkalinity and correspondingly weak carbonate buffering capacity. Here, we compare unique CO2 system observations covering complete annual cycles at an Arctic (Amundsen Gulf) and Antarctic site (Prydz Bay). The Arctic site experiences greater seasonal warming (10 vs 3�C), and freshening (3 vs 2), has lower alkalinity (2220 vs 2320??mol/kg), and lower summer pH (8.15 vs 8.5), than the Antarctic site. Despite a larger uptake of inorganic carbon by summer photosynthesis, the Arctic carbon system exhibits smaller seasonal changes than the more alkaline Antarctic system. In addition, the excess surface nutrients in the Antarctic may allow mitigation of acidification, via CO2 removal by enhanced summer production driven by iron inputs from glacial and sea-ice melting. These differences suggest that the Arctic system is more vulnerable to anthropogenic change due to lower alkalinity, enhanced warming, and nutrient limitation.

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6,000?? Give it a rest.

G�bekli Tepe is more than 10,000 years old. And quite intricate I might add.

Explain that!

Nature: Rising ocean acidity will exacerbate global warming

As more CO2 enters the atmosphere, some dissolves in seawater, forming carbonic acid. This is decreasing the pH of the oceans, which is already down by 0.1 pH units on pre-industrial times, and could be down by another 0.5 in some places by 2100. And studies using 'mesocosms' � enclosed volumes of seawater � show that seawater with a lower pH produces less DMS2. On a global scale, a fall in DMS emissions due to acidification could have a major effect on climate, creating a positive-feedback loop and enhancing warming.

On the same note as Belfry, although the "headline" is somewhat deceiving.

Coccolithophores beat climate change predictions

The researchers exposed one species of coccolithophores (Emiliania huxleyi) to the temperatures and acidic conditions that are expected to be common in the Earth�s oceans in 100 years. The one year experiment produced 700 generations of the algae.

Unexpectedly, the algae were able to maintain the growth of their calcified shells and continue to incorporate atmospheric carbon into those shells. Similar experiments found the same species of algae grew calcified shells at a lower rate in cold water with high acidity.

...........

This work is the first indication that natural algal adaptations may moderate some of the anticipated effects of climate change.

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6,000?? Give it a rest.

G�bekli Tepe is more than 10,000 years old. And quite intricate I might add.

Explain that!

Worth a listen: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038xrj5 Joanna Haigh, Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Imperial College, London, studies the influence of the sun on the earth's climate using data� interviewed in, "The Life Scientific."

Not directly about climate change, but ...
World-first pilot plant to turn carbon dioxide into rock

A research pilot plant in Newcastle will trial world-first technology that turns carbon emissions into bricks and pavers for the construction industry.

The mineral carbonation technology copies and accelerates the earth's own way of sinking carbon.

The University of Newcastle, chemical giant Orica and carbon innovation company GreenMag Group have spent six years researching how to permanently and safely dispose of carbon dioxide.

...

"We could be making millions of tonnes of bricks and pavers which really could be green products for the future," he said.

He says the project is about permanently transforming carbon dioxide, not just storing it in the ground.

The real question is not will it work, but, how much will it cost. Will the cost of the bricks be more than bricks made the old fashion, dirty way.

If people in the Australia are anything like they are hear in the U.S. their commitment to the environment is a mile wide, but, only an inch deep. The breaking point is usually money. If �green� products cost more up front that�s usually the kiss of death.

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IF ALL THE ICE MELTED

Perhaps as high as 80 degrees Fahrenheit on a global average!! Quite a game changer.
Tell the kids, and their kids , and their kids, ... your sorry.

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6,000?? Give it a rest.

G�bekli Tepe is more than 10,000 years old. And quite intricate I might add.

Explain that!

New dimensions on ice

Speaking today at the Living Planet Symposium in Edinburgh, UK, Prof. Andrew Shepherd from the University of Leeds, UK, said, �CryoSat continues to provide clear evidence of diminishing Arctic sea ice.

�From the satellite�s measurements we can see that some parts of the ice pack ice have thinned more rapidly than others, but there has been a decrease in the volume of winter and summer ice over the past three years.

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6,000?? Give it a rest.

G�bekli Tepe is more than 10,000 years old. And quite intricate I might add.

Explain that!