Posted on July 30th, 2009 by Dr. Wil Burns
Following up on my previous post on the potential positive feedback mechanism of cloud cover, a new study in Nature (Dorrepaal, et al., Carbon Respiration from Subsurface Peat Accelerated By Climate Warming in the Subarctic, 460 Nature 616-620 (2009)) reveals another potentially massive positive feedback mechanism: accelerated carbon release as a consequence of enhanced peatland [...]
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Posted on July 27th, 2009 by Dr. Wil Burns
Climate researchers have consistently emphasized that the response of clouds to climate change will play a critical role in the future of the globe’s climate, but assessing the magnitude, and direction, of this feedback mechanism has proven extremely problematic in climate change modeling. A new study in the journal Science, Clement, Burgman & Norris, Observational [...]
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Posted on July 22nd, 2009 by Dr. Wil Burns
DISCCRS V Interdisciplinary Climate Change Research Symposium http://disccrs.org/DISCCRSposter.pdf 13-20 March 2010 Saguaro Lake Ranch, AZ Application Deadline 31 August 2009 Participation limited to thirty-four early career scholars Airfare and on-site expenses supported by the National Science Foundation http://disccrs.org/ The Dissertations Initiative for the Advancement of Climate Change Research (DISCCRS, pronounced discourse), connects natural andsocial scientists engaged in research [...]
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Posted on July 21st, 2009 by Dr. Wil Burns
Here’s an excellent set of videotaped lectures on Climate Change Law & Policy on the Academic Earth site, by William Collins. If you put in the search term “climate change,” the site pulls up several others by UC-Berkeley faculty.
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Posted on July 21st, 2009 by Dr. Wil Burns
In a new Op-Ed, How to Set Greenhouse Gas Emission Targets for All Countries, Professor Jeffrey Frankel of Harvard’s Belfer Center outlines an interesting approach to how to develop a post-2012 climate regime. The study may be an interesting reading for students when juxtaposed with proposals that focus more on other criteria, e.g. equitable considerations [...]
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Posted on July 17th, 2009 by Dr. Wil Burns
An interesting new study, Chakravarty, Shoibal, Ananth Chikkatur, Heleen de Coninck, Stephen Pacala, Robert Socolow, and Massimo Tavoni. “Sharing Global CO2 Emission Reductions Among One Billion High Emitters.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (July 6, 2009) could be an excellent reading for students in helping them determine [...]
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Posted on July 17th, 2009 by Dr. Wil Burns
The World Resources Institute’s issue brief Climate Science 2008: Major New Discoveries has just been released. It’s an excellent resource for teaching the climate change science phase of climate courses, reviewing major scientific developments in four sections: Physical Science; Hydrological Cycle; Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services; and Climate Change Mitigation Technologies. The brief summarizes key [...]
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Posted on July 13th, 2009 by Dr. Wil Burns
The latest UNFCCC data on GHG emissions of Annex I Parties is now available for the period of 1990-2006. The site includes some excellent graphs on total aggregate GHG emissions both including and excluding LULUCF, as well as trends in emissions.
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Posted on July 13th, 2009 by Dr. Wil Burns
The UNFCCC Secretariat is working with Google and the Danish Government, as the host of COP 15, to display official UNFCCC greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data for Annex I Parties using Google Maps. Users can select a world map displaying: total national GHG emissions or removals, as well as emissions or removals from various sectors; [...]
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Posted on July 3rd, 2009 by Dr. Wil Burns
A quintessential example of potential positive feedback mechanisms that threaten to substantially accelerate warming trends during this decade and beyond is melting of permafrost in the far northern hemisphere. A new study, summarized in Reuters, and published in the journal Global Biogeochemical Cycle, concluded that the amount of carbon locked away in frozen soils in [...]
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