Dec 18 2009

Climate Changes

Posted by: Kory Raftery

Several stories on the science and politics of global warming caught our attention this week:

With all eyes focused on Copenhagen, world leaders left the long awaited and much anticipated United Nations Climate Change Conference with what President Obama called "a foundation for global action." The agreement sets a target of two degrees Celsius for the increase in global temperatures with countries supposed to provide information on cutting carbon dioxide emissions through national communications, with provisions for international consultations and analysis under clearly defined guidelines. After reading the agreement, one Greenpeace official noted, "It seems there are too few politicians in this world capable of looking beyond the horizon of their own narrow self-interest, let alone caring much for the millions of people who are facing down the threat of climate change."

Stanford researchers claim global warming could have a devastating effect on U.S. crops, including corn and wine grapes. And it is not just the temperature increase that we should be worried about. According to the researchers, global warming triggers the spring cycles of the birds and the bees to arrive early. "In recent years, there has been quite a bit of work in phenology, which is the study of the timing of lifecycles - when do birds migrate, trees drop their leaves, crops mature, etc.," said Noah Diffenbaugh, a center fellow at Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment. "Many of these natural events are tied to the climate."

A new study suggests the seas may be rising faster than scientists previously thought. Using the past to examine the future, scientists studied sea level rise during the most previous interglacial stage, roughly 125,000 years ago. Geologist Peter Clark believes we are headed down a similar path, stating that if the warming trend continues "we can expect a large fraction of the Greenland ice sheet and some part of the Antarctic ice sheet, mostly likely West Antarctica, to melt."

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