climate change

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Getting to the Root of Recurring Water Conflicts

By Holly Doremus / On April 21st, 2009
The western United States is characterized by highly variable and seasonal rainfall patterns. To deal with the constant threat of drought, the West relies on intensively managed water systems. Today, those systems face two challenges that were not anticipated when they were developed decades ago: increased demands that water be left in streams to sustain aquatic systems; and global climate change, which will decrease snowfall, leaving less water for farms and cities. The inevitable result is heightened conflicts over water allocation.
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Nature-al Resources

By Anthony Barnosky / On April 20th, 2009
What comes to mind when you hear the words "natural resources?" Oil. Water. Nature. Nature? In fact, yes, nature is one of the big ones. Ecologists and economists have a name for the natural resources that nature provides: "ecosystem services." They've calculated that globally the dollar-value of those services could be $54 trillion annually in 1997 dollars--for comparison the Gross World Product for 2008 was around $62 trillion.
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Terry Tamminen: "Cop" to It Now: An Empty-Handed US Will Be a Party-Pooper

By Terry Tamminen / On April 15th, 2009
The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) sounds like a contradiction in terms--conferences are business-like and dull while parties are, well, fun! But COP 15 is actually the formal name of the annual gathering of nations that participate in the UN's effort to curb climate change and the "party" is about half a year from now in Denmark. Will the US arrive with little more than a tourist map of Copenhagen and some well-worn stories about China being the world's leading emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs)?
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Anthony D. Barnosky: Now for Some Good News

By Anthony Barnosky / On April 10th, 2009
My extended family tells me they're getting a little depressed about hearing all the bad things that might happen from global warming. So I guess it's time to point out that maybe it's not as bleak as it seems. Here's the good news.
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Hoping for the Best

By Anthony Barnosky / On April 3rd, 2009
I admit it. In my heart of hearts, I'm hoping for the best. Those scenarios of climate change we see splashed across the newspapers and magazines include a wide range of possibilities, and I keep my fingers crossed that we'll end up closer to the best case. But just three weeks ago the best case got a lot worse. A group of climate scientists meeting in Copenhagen announced that sea level very likely is going to rise almost twice as much as we thought.
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After the Storm

By Anthony Barnosky / On March 18th, 2009
When you’re in the middle of a forest fire, trees exploding all around you, smoke burning your lungs, and fireballs dropping from the sky, it’s hard to think about much except getting out of there alive.  That’s kind of where we are with thinking about global warming nowadays—the direct impacts on people.  How many lose their homes when sea level rises?  What new diseases are going to make their way out of the tropics?  How many dollars will it take to cut carbon emissions?
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Obama Needs Churchill 101

By Jonathan Isham / On February 25th, 2009
In times of great trial, the best politicians strive for Churchillian rhetoric – or better yet, simply quote Churchill.  And in tough times, no quote resounds more than Churchill’s memorable assessment, in late 1942, of the Battle of El Alamein, the first major British victory in WW II: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
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Don’t Wait. Communicate!

By [node:field_contributor] / On February 20th, 2009
I know of a scientist who wrote that changes in small constituents of the atmosphere-namely carbon dioxide-could greatly influence the heat budget of the Earth. He predicted Arctic temperatures would rise about 8 or 9 degrees Celsius if atmospheric carbon dioxide was increased 2.5 to 3 times its present value. He later became concerned that man-made carbon dioxide pollution could contribute to this warming, and he even published a few books on the subject.
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Sea Levels Rise and Scientists Wade In

By Elizabeth Grossman / On February 19th, 2009
If anyone doubts that the world's environment is in a state - if not of crisis then of grave concern - I suggest attending a major scientific conference. Among the sobering assessments offered at the 2009 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held this past weekend in Chicago, came from climate scientist Chris Field, director of the department of global ecology at the Carnegie Institution for Science.

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