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| Top Stories from the Past
Two Weeks as of September 19,
2006 |
| Fake volcanoes could combat global
warming |
| Cosmos (Sydney, Australia) (September 19,
2006) |
By Erica Harrison |
| Creating fake volcanic eruptions
could help combat global warming, according to a new U.S.
study. This can significantly offset future warming and
provide additional time to reduce dependence on fossil fuels,”
said Tom Wigley of the National
Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado,
author of the study. . . . If found to be environmentally and
technologically viable, such injections could provide a "grace
period" of up to 20 years before major cutbacks in greenhouse
gas emissions would be required, according to Wigley. . . .
"Geoengineering could provide additional time to address the
economic and technological challenges faced by a
mitigation-only approach," said Wigley. He noted, however,
that it's not a panacea. |
| Are humans causing stronger
hurricanes? |
| Earth
& Sky Radio Series (September 18, 2006) DMA: 0 |
|
| . . . Tom Wigley:
... the changes cannot be caused by natural fluctuations,
which just leaves human factors as the dominant cause. JB:
That's Tom Wigley, a climate scientist and study co-author. He
said those "human factors" include more greenhouse gases into
the atmosphere, from burning fossil fuels. Tom Wigley: The
real question is what's going to happen in the future ... I'll
just give you a central estimate. If the warming has been 0.7
of a degree Celsius over the last 100 years, the warming for
the next hundred years is probably going to be about four
times that much. So that should give people cause for concern
about climate change in general and what we can do to slow
down the rate of warming. |
| Research balloons drop in on storms - A
U.S.-French project gathers data about tropical weather from
places hurricane hunters can't go. |
| Orlando
(Florida) Sentinel (September 17, 2006) circ. 391,100 |
By Maya Bell |
| . . . A team of U.S. and French
researchers wants to know why only a handful or two of the
dozens of easterly waves, elongated patches of relatively low
pressure that roll off west Africa, become tropical storms or
hurricanes every year. The answer could depend on
hard-to-come-by data that, for now, only high-flying balloons
drifting on light easterly winds in the subfreezing
temperatures of the stratosphere can capture. "It's a data set
you cannot collect any other way," said Dave
Parsons, a scientist with [t]he National
Center for Atmospheric Research and the U.S.
coordinator for the joint French-American balloon project. . .
. "They float at a speed close to the movement of the easterly
waves, so we can stay above those waves and monitor them from
their earliest stages," Parsons said. |
| Getting Warmer? Don't Blame It on the
Sun, Experts Say - A study of 1,000 years of variations in
solar activity finds little or no effect on climate
change. |
Los
Angeles Times (September 16, 2006) circ.
851,832
Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek,
California) (September 16, 2006) circ. 185,036
The
Day (New London, Connecticut) (September 16, 2006) circ.
39,472 |
By Robert Lee Hotz |
| Seeking another cause of global
warming, some climate experts long suspected that the sun
itself could be at fault. Changes in the sun's luminosity
might be more to blame for the world's rising temperatures
than industrial greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and
methane, they speculated. Not so, scientists reported
Wednesday in the journal Nature. By evaluating patterns of
solar activity during the past thousand years, a team of
experts concluded that variations in the sun's energy output
played little or no role in global warming. . . . "The
influence of the sun is utterly negligible," said Tom
Wigley, a climate expert at the University
Corporation for Atmospheric Research. "Compared with
the human influence on climate, it is a very minor effect."
|
| High-flown scheme to fend off warming -
Boulder scientist refloats far-out idea to reflect sunlight
back into space |
| Rocky
Mountain News (September 15, 2006) circ. 527,726 |
By Jim Erickson |
| Using high-flying jets to spray a
sun-reflecting mist into the upper atmosphere could halt
global warming when combined with drastic worldwide cutbacks
in greenhouse gas emissions, a Boulder scientist has
concluded. But the techno-fix could be very costly and is
fraught with uncertainty, admits Tom Wigley
of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research. According to Wigley, a fleet of jets
pumping sulfur high in the atmosphere could mimic the 1991
eruption of Mount Pinatubo, which blasted 10 million tons of
sulfur into the stratosphere and cooled the Earth's surface by
nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit for about a year. . . . "Until
recently, when we realized that the consequences of climate
change were rather more severe than we had anticipated, these
radical ideas had been dismissed - and probably rightly so,"
said Wigley, author of a paper on the sulfur-pumping idea that
appears in today's edition of the journal Science. "But now
it's come to the point where I think we have to consider these
things seriously," he said. |
| Turning back the planetary
thermostat |
| Seattle
Post-Intelligencer (September 15, 2006) circ. 699,000 |
By Lisa Stiffler |
| . . . Tom Wigley, an
atmospheric scientist at the National Center for
Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., has crunched
the numbers for the idea of sprinkling the atmosphere with
sulfur particles via airplanes or balloons. His research was
published yesterday in the online version of the journal
Science. "It could buy us some time ... and we need time,"
Wigley told the Denver Post's Katy Human in a story that ran
today. . . . He's drawing comparisons for the idea to the
cooling effect created by eruptions of volcanic ash. Wigley
suggests that the sulfur equivalent of about half a Mount
Pinatubo eruption each year would do the trick.
|
| Experts warming to climate tinkering -
As some scientists warn that the planet is already heating up
faster than predicted, all sorts of ideas are on the
table. |
| Denver
Post (September 15, 2006) circ. 275,292 |
By Katy Human |
| The idea of tinkering with Earth's
climate - once the domain of wing nuts and science-fiction
writers - is getting a serious look by researchers. Faced with
global warming, scientists are rethinking ideas such as
sprinkling reflective dust in the atmosphere to cool the
planet. "It could buy us some time ... and we need time," said
Tom Wigley, an atmospheric scientist at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder. Wigley's analysis of spraying sulfur particles into
the atmosphere using airplanes or balloons appears in the
journal Science today. . . . "I don't advocate directly that
we should do this," Wigley said. "Rather, I'm saying this is a
serious problem and we should think about all the options." .
. . Such a project, even if it cost billions of dollars, would
be a tiny fraction the cost of protecting cities from rising
seas, fighting wildfires and coping with droughts, Wigley
said. |
| KTLA Morning News First
Edition |
KTLA-TV CH
5 (WB) Los Angeles (September 15, 2006) DMA: 2
05:00
AM - 06:00 AM |
|
| 00:35:28 TZ; El Nino: El Nino
conditions are starting to form in the Pacific again, and some
believe that global warming is to blame. V; Footage of people
on a beach. V; Footage of a rally. I; Jason Robinson,
Environment CA, talks about global warming. V; Footage of a
CalNational sign. V; Footage of traffic. GR; Global warming in
CA, courtesy of Environment CA. I; Candace Desbaillets,
Environment CA, talks about the global warming issue. V;
Footage of flooding. Researchers at the National
Center for Atmospheric Research believe that El Nino
conditions and global warming are connected. V; Footage of an
Environment CA sign. Chris Wolfe reporting. 00:37:38
|
| Scientists say volcano gas could offset
global warming for 20 years |
| Irish
Independent (Dublin, Ireland) (September 15, 2006) circ.
266,075 |
By Lewis Smith |
| . . . By spraying the same amount of
sulphate particles, or aerosols, ejected by large volcanic
eruptions, average temperatures around the world could be
stabilised for two decades. . . . "If found to be
environmentally and technologically viable, such injections
could provide a 'grace period' of up to 20 years before major
cutbacks in greenhouse gas emissions would be required," said
Tom Wigley, of the US National Centre
for Atmospheric Research. Professor Wigley said that
a "relatively modest geo-engineering investment" could reduce
the immediate economic and technological burden of mitigating
the effects of greenhouse gas emissions.
|
| Will a Layer of Silt in the Sky Save the
Earth? |
| National
Public Radio's Talk of the Nation (September 14, 2006)
DMA: 0 |
By David Kestenbaum |
| [Tom Wigley] says he
has a way to "Save the Earth from Global Warming" -- for a
while, at least. The idea is to do what volcanoes do: inject
material into the stratosphere. That would create a thin haze
and reflect some sunlight. The general notion has been around
for decades. But the paper proposes using it not as a
permanent fix, but to buy time until greenhouse gases
emissions can be brought under control. The proposal appears
in the journal Science this week. |
| Scientists: Arctic sea ice tells of
warming - Wintertime declines seen as strong sign of climate
change |
| Rocky
Mountain News (September 14, 2006) circ. 527,726 |
By Jim Erickson |
| Recent sharp declines in the extent
of wintertime Arctic sea ice provide strong new evidence that
global warming is already at work there, shrinking the habitat
available to polar bears and potentially threatening rich
fisheries, scientists reported Wednesday. . . . The cap
shrinks each summer to roughly the size of the 48 contiguous
U.S. states, then grows each winter. . . . But in the winter
of 2004-2005 and again last winter, the cap's maximum size
dipped 6 percent below the long-term average each winter. . .
. Boulder climate modeler Gerald Meehl
cautioned that more data are needed before scientists can
conclude a long-term wintertime trend has been observed in
Arctic sea ice. "It's hard to extract a trend from two years
of data," said Meehl, who was not involved in the study. "But
I think what we're seeing in a decrease of winter sea ice is
consistent with what the models have been projecting and also
consistent with the general features of a warming planet,"
said Meehl, who works at the National Center for
Atmospheric Research. |
| Puffed-up planet puzzles
astronomers |
| New
Scientist (September 14, 2006) circ. 147,278 |
By Hazel Muir |
| An amazingly swollen planet has been
spotted circling a star in the constellation Lacerta. It is
the second of its kind, which makes astronomers suspect these
inexplicably puffed-up worlds are actually common. . . .
“Whatever the process that makes planets like this, it is not
particularly rare,” comments Tim Brown, an
extrasolar planet expert at the National Center for
Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, US. “But I
don't think anybody understands why HD 209458b or HAT-P-1 are
so big.” . . . Brown concludes that HAT-P-1 will give
astronomers plenty to chew on. “The result is a fascinating
and difficult challenge to theorists, who need to explain how
planets like these can form, and also to observers, whose job
it is to quash such theories when they are clever but wrong,”
he says. |
| Study acquits sun of climate change,
blames humans |
CNN.com (September 15, 2006)
ABCNew.com
(Australia) (September 15, 2006)
Herald Sun
(Southbank, Australia) (September 14, 2006) circ.
544,000
Zee News (Mumbal Maharashtra, India)
(September 15, 2006)
Daily Telegraph (Surry Hills,
Australia) (September 14, 2006) circ. 397,045
plus
Courier-Mail (Bowen Hills, Australia), Yahoo!News.com
(Australia and Asia), MSNBC.com |
By Alister Doyle (Reuters) |
| The sun's energy output has barely
varied over the past 1,000 years, raising chances that global
warming has human rather than celestial causes, a study showed
on Wednesday. Researchers from Germany, Switzerland and the
United States found that the sun's brightness varied by only
0.07 percent over 11-year sunspot cycles, far too little to
account for the rise in temperatures since the Industrial
Revolution. "Our results imply that over the past century
climate change due to human influences must far outweigh the
effects of changes in the sun's brightness," said Tom
Wigley of the U.S. National Center for
Atmospheric Research. |
| A new approach to global
warming |
| Rocky
Mountain News (September 14, 2006) circ. 527,726 |
|
| A two-pronged approach to stabilizing
global warming, with cuts in greenhouse gas emissions combined
with the release of heat-reflecting particles into the
atmosphere, could prove more effective than either approach
used separately, a Boulder climate researcher says. Injecting
sulfate particles into the upper atmosphere could help buy
time until the nations of the world can signficantly cut
emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, said Tom
Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research. |
| Imitating volcano could slow global
warming: computer model |
| CBCNews.com (Ontario, Canada) (September
14, 2006) |
|
| . . . The idea of releasing large
amount of sulphate particles into the atmosphere to block a
portion of the sun's rays has been around since the 1970s. . .
. NCAR's Tom Wigley ran
several scenarios in the computer model. One simulated cutting
carbon emissions immediately and lowering them by 50 per cent
in the next 50 years. Another allowed for increasing emissions
until the 2030s before the cutbacks begin. In those cases,
Wigley found that simulating volcanic-scale sulphate emissions
every year, every two years or every four years can keep
global temperatures about constant, even with increasing
carbon emissions, for the next 40 to 50 years. . . . The study
is a purely theoretical work and doesn't explore the
technical, political or environmental feasibility of
intentionally altering the Earth's climate, a theoretical
field called geoengineering. |
| Can pollutant stave off warming crisis?
- Climate expert suggests adding sulfur dioxide to create
shade |
TVNZ.com (Auckland, New Zealand) (September
15, 2006)
MSNBC.com (September 14,
2006)
Reuters (September 14, 2006) |
By Deborah Zabarenko (Reuters) |
| To stall global warming for 20 years,
one climate scientist has proposed lobbing sulfur dioxide into
the stratosphere, which would work in concert with cuts in
greenhouse gas emissions. The sulfur dioxide, a pollutant on
Earth, would form sulfate aerosol particles to shade the
planet, much as the ash clouds from a major volcanic eruption
do, said Tom Wigley of the National
Center for Atmospheric Research. Wigley used computer
models to determine that injecting sulfate particles at
intervals from one to four years would have about the same
cooling power as the 1991 eruption on Mount Pinatubo in the
Philippines. . . . “I’m not suggesting we don’t reduce our
dependence on fossil fuels for energy,” Wigley said in a
telephone interview. ”I think that that’s the only long-term
solution to the problem of global warming, we definitely have
to do that. But ... can we make it economically and
technologically easier by doing something that’s also
technology, which may be cost-effective?” . . . “We’ve got to
consider it very seriously because otherwise we might be in
for much worse things just due to emission of carbon dioxide
and other greenhouse gases,” he said. |
| No Sunshine for Global Warming
Skeptics |
| Scientific
American (September 13, 2006) circ. 589,232 |
By J.R. Minkel |
| Known variations in the sun's total
energy output cannot explain recent global warming, say
researchers who have reviewed the existing evidence. The
judgment, which appears in the September 14 Nature, casts
doubt on the claims of some global warming skeptics who have
argued that long-term changes in solar output, or luminosity,
might be driving the current climate pattern. . . . "The
question is, were there times in the past when it was equally
warm, and the answer is no," says Tom Wigley
of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research. He and three colleagues compared the
average of a number of temperature reconstructions based on
tree rings, ice cores and other data with models of Northern
Hemisphere temperature that include different levels of solar
variation, from little to a speculatively high amount. In all
cases, "what you get out looks very much like the
observations" from real samples, he says. "The warming [of the
past 100 years] is greater than any in the last 1,000 years."
The consistency meshes with solar physicists' latest
understanding of how the sun works, the group notes.
|
| Rebeca Chapa: Activists pressuring local
governments to go green |
| San
Antonio (Texas) Express-News (September 13, 2006) circ.
270,067 |
|
| . . . While politically positive, the
recent discovery of vast oil reserves beneath the Gulf of
Mexico will, if exploited fully, only prolong our oil
consumption. A study released this week by the National
Academy of Sciences asserts that human activity has a
significant impact on climate change, which feeds the growing
power of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. "The
work that we've done kind of closes the loop here,"
Tom Wigley of the National Center for
Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. and a
co-author of the paper said in news accounts. . . . Global
warming has its share of skeptics, and some are loath to
believe human activity has either led to it or can stanch it.
Sinkin said that's backward thinking. "People who once
considered the world flat tried to eliminate the people who
believed the world was round," he said. "Believing there is no
global warming today, given the tremendous opinion of most
scientists, is going back to a flat world concept."
|
| Don't Blame the Sun |
| Science (September 13, 2006) circ.
129,590 |
By Dan Whipple |
| . . . A paper in tomorrow's issue of
Nature concludes that changes in the sun's brightness over the
past 100 years have been too small to significantly impact
Earth's climate. . . . Although solar brightness has increased
over the past 400 years, the team concludes that the amount is
too small to explain the 20th century warming. . . . Asked
whether total solar irradiance can be discounted as a driver
of the current warming, climatologist Thomas
Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research in Boulder, Colorado, one of the paper's
authors, says simply, "Yes." After a pregnant pause, he adds,
"I'm very categorical about that final answer. I feel very
confident about that." Still, Wigley says other solar
processes, such as cosmic rays or ultraviolet radiation, could
still have an affect on Earth's climate. The current study did
not examine these phenomena. |
| Free Flow: After jets, cars: Success
isn't enough for Mulally |
| International Herald Tribune (Neuilly
Cedex, France) (September 13, 2006) circ. 242,182 |
By Don Phillips |
| Alan Mulally had it made. At age 61,
the outgoing executive vice president of Boeing could have
rested on his reputation as the man who saved the giant
aircraft maker and returned the company to its top spot as the
worldwide go-to company for airplanes. . . . One of Mulally's
most interesting achievements at Boeing was the invention of a
new aircraft maneuver that likely has saved thousands of lives
over the years. With the [National] Center for
Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, United
Airlines and others, a way was created to recognize and avoid
a violent downdraft called a microburst. "We were killing
people every year," Mulally said during an interview. He said
he went to Washington many times in an effort - finally
successful - to persuade the authorities to require training
in the maneuver. Of all the many things he has done in
aviation, these leaps forward in safety bring the broadest
smile and the longest and most enthusiastic conversations.
|
| Stronger Storms Blamed on
Humans |
| Washington
Post (September 12, 2006) circ. 724,242 |
|
| . . . A series of studies have shown
an increase in the power of hurricanes in the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans, a strengthening that storm experts say is tied
to rising sea-surface temperatures. . . . "The important
conclusion is that the observed [sea-surface temperature]
increases in these hurricane breeding grounds cannot be
explained by natural processes alone," said Tom
Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research in Boulder, Colo., a co-author of the paper.
"The best explanation for these changes has to include a large
human influence." The research team, led by Benjamin Santer of
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.,
studied the relationship of climate and hurricanes using 22
climate models at 15 institutions around the world.
|
| Human activities increase ocean
temperatures, breed hurricanes: Study |
People's
Daily (Beijing, China) (September 12, 2006) circ.
3,000,000
Xinhua News Agency (September 12,
2006) |
By Zhu Jin (Xinhua News Agency) |
| A study conducted by atmospheric
scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,
National Center for Atmospheric Research, and
other institutions has shown that the rising sea surface
temperatures of the tropical Atlantic and Pacific oceans over
the last century is linked to human activities. The study,
based on 22 different computer models of the climate system,
was published on-line in the Sept. 11 issue of the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences. Hurricanes are complex
phenomena that are influenced by a variety of physical
factors, such as sea surface temperatures, wind shear, water
vapor and atmospheric stability, according to the study. . . .
"It is important to note that we expect global temperatures
and sea surface temperatures to increase even more rapidly
over the next century," said Tom Wigley, a
co-author of the study. . . . |
| Study: Earth and Space Weather
Connected |
MSNBC.com (September 12,
2006)
Yahoo!News.com (September 12,
2006)
LiveScience.com (September 12, 2006) |
By Ker Than |
| Space weather in the upper reaches of
the atmosphere is affected by weather conditions down here on
Earth, a new study suggests. . . . The finding, detailed in
the Aug. 11 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, is
surprising because scientists didn't think the ionosphere and
the troposphere--the lower part of the atmosphere where
terrestrial weather happens--affected one another. . . . Using
Global Scale Wave Model, a computer simulation developed by
the National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR), the researchers confirmed that the areas
above the tropical rainforests produce tides of air in the
atmosphere. These tides indirectly affect the plasma bands by
modifying a layer of the atmosphere that helps shape them.
|
| Increasing ocean temperatures fuelling
more powerful hurricanes, say scientists |
| The
Guardian (Manchester, U.K.) (September 12, 2006) circ.
378,703 |
By Ian Sample |
| . . . The scientists, led by Ben
Santer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in
California, used 22 climate models to investigate the possible
causes of a rise in sea surface temperatures of up to 0.67C in
the Atlantic and Pacific tropics from 1906 to 2005. Each
computer model was run several times to work out how much sea
surface temperatures would have warmed with and without rising
levels of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. . . .
Tom Wigley, another scientist on the study,
at the National Centre for Atmospheric
Research in Boulder, Colorado, added: "The best
explanation for these increases has to include a large human
influence. We expect global temperatures and sea surface
temperatures to increase more rapidly over the next century."
|
| Climate models: Humans fueling
hurricanes - Tests show strong correlation between warming
ocean, rising emissions |
MSNBC.com (September 12,
2006)
Yahoo!News.com (September 12,
2006)
CBSNews.com (September 11, 2006) |
(MSNBC staff and news service
reports) |
| . . . Tom Wigley, a
co-author and a climate scientist at the National
Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.,
said the study “closes the loop” between climate change and
powerful storms like Hurricane Katrina. The study follows
research papers over the past year or so that have shown an
increase in the power of hurricanes, but also skepticism from
some experts who question the reliability of computer models.
Wigley's team had the backing of several peers at a briefing
for reporters Thursday ahead of the publication of the new
study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
. . . Asked at the briefing if they would recommend changes in
public policy, Greg Holland of the
National Center for Atmospheric Research
said, “It is important to note that we’re not policymakers.
Our role is to present the best possible conclusions from the
available evidence.” |
| The gathering storms: How man is making
the wind blow |
| The
Independent (London) (September 12, 2006) circ.
261,043 |
By Michael McCarthy and Abigail
Townsend |
| It's hard at first to get your head
around the idea, indeed it seems outlandish: that by switching
on the light, or stamping on the car accelerator, you're
helping to pulverise a great city such as New Orleans. But
that's the inescapable implication of a piece of research
published yesterday by a group of the world's most
distinguished climate scientists. Freak storms such as
Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Big Easy a year ago,
are not just freaks, they suggest. They are down to us. . . .
"The important conclusion is that the observed SST increases
in these hurricane breeding grounds cannot be explained by
natural processes alone," said one of the scientists involved,
Dr Tom Wigley, from the National
Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
"The best explanation for these changes has to include a large
human influence." He added: "It is important to note we expect
global temperatures and SSTs to increase even more rapidly in
the next century. |
| Study says global warming is helping to
spawn major hurricanes |
| South
Florida Sun-Sentinel (September 12, 2006) circ.
257,000 |
By Ken Kaye |
| . . . A study released Monday asserts
that human-made greenhouse gases are raising sea surface
temperatures. Because of that, scientists say, the Atlantic is
boiling up more major hurricanes, five of which have slammed
Florida in the past two years. "We can never be 100 percent
sure of anything when we look at climate studies, but in this
case we are very confident in the results we've produced,"
said Tom Wigley, a senior scientist with
National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder, Colo., and one of two primary authors.
|
| Report links global warming,
storms |
| San
Francisco Chronicle (September 12, 2006) circ. 398,246 |
By Keay Davidson |
| . . . Tom Wigley,
one of the world's top climate modelers and a co-author of the
paper, said in a teleconference last week that the scientists
tried to figure out what caused the oceans to warm by running
many different computer models based on possible single
causes. Those causes ranged from human production of
greenhouse gases to natural variations in solar intensity.
Wigley said that when the researchers reviewed the results,
they found that only one model was best able to explain
changing ocean temperatures, and it pointed to greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere. The most infamous greenhouse gas is
carbon dioxide, a product of human burning of fossil fuels in
cars and factories. . . . Nineteen scientists from 10
institutions were involved in the Proceedings paper. In
addition to Lawrence Livermore, other U.S. institutions
included Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the
National Center for Atmospheric Research,
NASA, UC Merced, Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La
Jolla (San Diego County), and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. |
| New study ties global warming to
stronger hurricanes |
USA
Today (September 12, 2006) circ.
2,272,815
Baltimore Sun (September 12, 2006) circ.
320,912
Orange County Register (Santa Ana,
California) (September 12, 2006) circ. 303,418
Columbus
Dispatch (September 12, 2006) circ. 251,045
Sydney
(Australia) Morning Herald circ. 210,085
plus
DiscoveryChannel.com, Royal Gazette (Hamilton, Bermuda),
Insurance Journal (Montreal, Canada) |
By Randolph E. Schmid (Associated
Press) |
| . . . A series of studies over the
past year or so has shown an increase in the power of
hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific, a strengthening that
storm experts say is tied to rising ocean surface
temperatures. . . . "The work that we've done kind of closes
the loop here," said Tom Wigley of the
National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder, Colo., a co-author of the paper. . . . While previous
studies have looked at entire oceans, this work focused on the
smaller areas of the Atlantic and Pacific where tropical
storms form. |
| Hurricane-human link seen
|
| Rocky
Mountain News (September 12, 2006) circ. 527,726 |
By Jim Erickson |
| . . . Authors of the latest report,
published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, say their work substantially strengthens
the chain of evidence pointing to humans. "The work that we've
done kind of closes the loop," said Tom
Wigley, of the National Center for
Atmospheric Research in Boulder. Three NCAR
researchers and colleagues from eight other institutions
looked at long-term changes in sea-surface temperatures, or
SSTs. "The important conclusion is that the observed SST
increases in these hurricane breeding grounds cannot be
explained by natural processes alone," Wigley said. "The best
explanation for these changes has to include a large human
influence." . . . NCAR scientists and their colleagues . . .
used 22 state-of-the-art computerized global climate models to
determine what's causing the ocean warming. They looked at the
output of more than 80 simulations using models developed at
15 research institutions around the world. The simulations
allowed the researchers to examine the roles of various
factors that affect climate, including variations in the sun's
output, volcanic eruptions, changes in ozone levels and
greenhouse gases. |
| Man-made factors fuel hurricanes, study
finds |
| Boston
Globe (September 12, 2006) circ. 397,288 |
By Beth Daley |
| . . . They were trying to answer two
questions: Is there a natural cycle contributing to a rise in
sea-surface temperatures? And to what degree are humans
contributing to the ocean warming? No single model has been
agreed upon to explain the complicated workings of the entire
climate system; instead, scientists have devised 22 models,
each using its own equations. Santer's team looked at all the
outcomes to increase their confidence in the results. The
group ran 80 simulations on superfast computers to see what
ocean temperature changes would occur over hundreds of years
under different scenarios, from volcano eruptions that can
temporarily cool sea temperatures to solar events that can
heat the seas. Then they compared the results with actual
ocean temperatures. Overall, the group saw no clear natural
reason or cycle in the North Atlantic and Pacific that could
explain the warming of oceans over the past century. Instead,
they concluded that human-caused climate change is the primary
factor. ``The work that we've done closes the loop," that
humans are warming the oceans, said Tom
Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research, who is a co-author of the study. It's
unclear what policy implications might come out of the study,
although it will probably add to growing pressure from
environmentalists and some legislators to pass laws limiting
the release of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, from
power plants. |
| Good Day New York
Wake-Up |
WNYW-TV CH
5 (FOX) (September 12, 2006) New York DMA: 0
05:30 AM
- 06:00 AM |
|
| 00:16:04 Weather news: A new study is
making a link between stronger hurricanes and the human causes
of global warming. V; Waves in ocean. A series of studies this
year have shown an increase in the power of hurricanes, and
storm experts tied that to rising sea surface temperatures.
The new report adds another connection. Tom
Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research is one of the studies authors. He says
natural processes alone cannot account for temperature
increases in areas where hurricanes form. V; Downed trees.
00:16:30 |
| Global warming is causing hurricane
increase, scientists say - Report is strongest evidence
yet |
Palm Beach
Post (September 12, 2006) circ. 168,216
Western
Star (Lebanon, Ohio) (September 12, 2006) circ.
16,300
Atlanta (Georgia) Journal-Constitution
(September 11, 2006) circ. 365,011 |
By Mike Toner |
| . . . The findings, published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide the
strongest evidence yet that man-made greenhouse gases are
playing a major role in the increase in both the number and
intensity of hurricanes. "There is now substantial evidence
that human-caused changes in greenhouse gases are the main
driver of sea surface temperature in hurricane forming regions
of the Atlantic and the Pacific," says Thomas
Wigley, senior scientist at the National
Center for Atmospheric Research. So-called greenhouse
gases — primarily carbon dioxide and methane — are emitted by
factories, power plants, automobiles, intensive agriculture
and forest burning. Levels of such gases in the atmosphere
have been increasing since the dawn of the industrial
revolution. . . . "This study kind of closes the loop," says
Wigley. "Sea surface temperature increases in these hurricane
breeding grounds cannot be explained by natural processes
alone. The best explanation for these changes has to include a
large human influence." |
| Warmer oceans produce stronger
hurricanes |
| United
Press International (September 12, 2006) |
(United Press International) |
| A study by 19 U.S. and European
scientists finds greenhouse gases, not natural cycles, are
causing warmer oceans that produce more powerful hurricanes.
"Clearly, this is a result of the increasing concentrations of
greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere," study co-author
Tom Wigley, a senior scientist at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder, Colo., told ABC News. "The work that we've done kind
of closes the loop here." |
| Humans get blame for more powerful
hurricanes |
Philadelphia Inquirer (September 12, 2006)
circ. 350,457
San Jose Mercury News (September 11,
2006) circ. 274,382
McClatchy Newspapers
(September 11, 2006) |
By Robert S. Boyd (McClatchy
Newspapers) |
| Humans are largely to blame for the
recent trend toward more powerful hurricanes, a group of 19
American and European scientists declared Monday. In a paper
appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, the scientists claim to have established a solid
chain linking human burning of fossil fuels, global warming,
higher ocean temperatures, and the intensity and duration of
recent hurricanes such as Katrina and Wilma. . . .
Greg Holland, a meteorologist at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder, Colo., said, "We still don't understand a lot of the
linkages, but the relationship is quite solid." Holland
acknowledged that global warming isn't the sole cause of the
escalation in extreme hurricanes. He estimated that natural
variability may account for up to 30 percent of the changes in
the storms' power but that the other 70 percent is "due to
climate change." . . . Thomas Wigley, a
climate expert at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research, predicted that ocean temperatures and
hurricane violence will continue to increase. "The changes we
expect over the next 100 years are far greater than over the
past 100 years," said Wigley, a co-author of the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences paper. "Sea surface
temperatures in the past are small beans compared to what
we're going to see in the future." |
| Humans blamed for powerful
hurricanes |
| Seattle
Post-Intelligencer (September 12, 2006) circ. 699,000 |
By Lee Bowman (Scripps Howard News
Service) |
| Rising ocean temperatures in key
hurricane nurseries are due primarily to increased
greenhouse-gas concentrations from human activity, scientists
report in a new study. . . . "The important conclusion is that
the observed SST increases in these hurricane breeding grounds
cannot be explained by natural processes alone," said
Tom Wigley, a researcher at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder, Colo., one of the study's co-authors. "The best
explanation for these changes has to include a large human
influence." |
| Boulder scientists connect humans,
hurricanes |
| Rocky
Mountain News (September 11, 2006) circ. 527,726 |
By Jim Erickson |
| . . . Using 22 different computer
models of the climate system, scientists at the
National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder and nine other institutions report that the warming of
sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the tropical Atlantic and
Pacific oceans over the last century is linked to human
activities. |
| Storm Warnings: Trying to Understand the
Causes of Hurricanes |
| Voice of
America (Radio) (September 11, 2006) DMA: 8 |
|
| . . . A new study has just been
published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, in the United States. Scientists examined rising
ocean temperatures in areas of the Atlantic and Pacific where
hurricanes form. They found an eighty-four percent chance that
humans have caused most of the observed rise over the last one
hundred years. They say warming sea surface temperatures are
mainly the result of an increase in greenhouse gases released
into the atmosphere. Earlier research examined temperature
changes over very large ocean areas, such as all of the
Atlantic or Pacific. The new study involved much smaller
hurricane formation areas. The researchers say they used most
of the world's computer climate models to study the causes of
the temperature changes. The study involved scientists from
ten research centers. These included Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory in California and the National
Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.
Tom Wigley from the Colorado team says: "The
best explanation for these changes has to include a large
human influence." |
| Humans 'causing stronger
storms' |
| BBCNews.com (London) (September 11,
2006) |
By Richard Black |
| . . . Scientists calculate that
two-thirds of the recent rise in sea temperatures, thought to
fuel hurricanes, is down to anthropogenic emissions. . . . Sea
surface temperature and hurricane strength vary naturally, and
deciphering a clear impact of human greenhouse gas emissions
has been difficult. . . . [I]n June this year, Kevin
Trenberth of the US National Center for
Atmospheric Research, analysed the exceptionally
active 2005 North Atlantic hurricane season. . . . . Benjamin
Santer, Tom Wigley and colleagues conclude:
"There is an 84% chance that external forcing [human
activities] explain at least 67% of the observed SST
increases" in the Pacific and Atlantic zones where hurricanes
form. "The important conclusion is that the observed SST
increases in these hurricane breeding grounds cannot be
explained by natural processes alone," said Dr Wigley. "The
best explanation for these changes has to include a large
human influence." |
| Rising Sea Surface Temperature Tied to
Human Action, Study Says |
| Bloomberg
New's Bloomberg.com (September 11, 2006) circ. 300,000 |
By Samantha Zee |
| . . . The research raised concerns
about the causes of the rising temperatures, particularly in
parts of the Atlantic and Pacific where hurricanes and other
tropical cyclones form, [Benjamin Santer] said. . . . Previous
efforts to understand the causes of changes in sea surface
temperatures focused on temperature changes averaged over very
large ocean areas, such as the entire Atlantic or Pacific
basins. The latest study focuses on the temperature changes in
much smaller hurricane formation regions. Santer, working with
a team of atmospheric scientists that included Tom
Wigley, senior scientist at the National
Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado,
examined data from 22 computer models of the climate system
taken from about 15 research centers around the world. . . .
``The important conclusion is that the observed sea surface
temperature increases in these hurricane breeding grounds
can't be explained by natural processes alone,'' Wigley said
in a statement. ``The best explanation for these changes has
to include a large human influence.'' |
| New Data Erases Doubt on Storms and
Warming |
| Inter
Press Service (Rome, Italy) (September 11, 2006) |
By Stephen Leahy |
| . . . Sea surface temperatures are
rising due to global warming and more than a dozen studies
since Hurricane Katrina hit the United States last August show
this has resulted in the dramatic increase in the strength of
hurricanes in recent years. . . . Those SST increases have
affected large parts of the Atlantic Ocean, so that the number
of hurricanes have increased as well as their intensity, says
Greg Holland, a climatologist and divisional
director of the National Centre for Atmospheric
Research. Although natural variability plays a part
in the increase in numbers and intensity, the impact of
climate change is the predominant factor, said Holland. "The
changes we're seeing in the North Atlantic are 70 percent due
to climate change effects," he said. . . . Although the
computer models were created by various climate research
centres around the world, there was "exceptional correlation
that human-induced climate change was the only way to get
those SST results", said Tom Wigley a climate
scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric
Research and a co-author of the PNAS paper. These are
the latest computer models and researchers have a high level
of confidence in their results, says Wigley. "There is less
than a one percent chance that the changes in SST could be the
result of non-human factors," he said.
|
| Hurricane Warning - New Study Billed as
Important Link Between Global Warming and
Hurricanes |
| ABCNews.com (September 11, 2006) |
By Clayton Sandell |
| . . . Previous studies had already
suggested a connection between warming ocean temperatures and
stronger hurricanes. This study provides a new and important
link needed to show that global warming, not natural cycles,
is responsible, according to the authors and other hurricane
researchers. "Clearly, this is a result of the increasing
concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere,"
said co-author Tom Wigley, a senior scientist
at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research in Boulder, Colo. "The work that we've done
kind of closes the loop here." The study used 22 sophisticated
computer climate models to examine the tropical regions of the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans, where hurricanes, also called
tropical cyclones, are born. In those areas, the temperatures
have risen an average of between a half degree Fahrenheit and
1.2 degrees Fahrenheit, over the last century. . . . "If the
models can simulate the observations, that tells us about the
credibility and skill of the models, and that's important,"
Wigley said. He noted the models performed "exceptionally
well," accurately predicting long-term climate trends, natural
weather patterns, and even the effect of volcanic eruptions.
Having established their confidence in the computer models,
researchers then used them to examine what was making the
oceans warmer in those hurricane-forming regions. . . .
"Greenhouse gases really are the dominant cause of the forcing
of the climate system by human influences," Wigley said.
Hurricane scientist Greg Holland agreed,
saying the results contradict the idea that natural cycles are
responsible for stronger storms. "One cannot say that
[increased hurricane activity] is due to natural variability.
It's just simply impossible to say that," said Holland, who
also works at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research but was not a co-author. "The data show that
there is an increasing trend, which is associated with
human-induced climate change." |
| Turbulence theory gets a bit
choppy |
| USA
Today (September 10, 2006) circ. 2,272,815 |
By Dan Vergano |
| . . . No one really understands
precisely how the flow of gas or liquids transitions from
smooth flow to choppy turbulence. . . . This drives engineers
nuts (I can attest to this as a former engineer) because
turbulence disrupts and drags air, gas and liquids that flow
in and on everything from pipelines to airplane wings to
artificial heart valves — all the apparatus of an industrial
society — in ways both costly and unpredictable. To take just
one example, turbulence costs U.S. airlines an annual $100
million due to injuries and delays, according to the
National Center for Atmospheric Research's
estimates. |
| Should N.Y. step up global warming
fight? No |
| New York
Daily News (Albany) (September 10, 2006) circ. 708,477 |
By Patrick J. Michaels |
| . . . The California Global Warming
Solutions Act is a watered-down version of the 1996 UN Kyoto
Protocol, which mandates that most industrial nations reduce
their emissions a tiny bit more by 2008-2012. California will
fail at Kyoto-lite, and New York shouldn't follow in its
footsteps. Why? Because the technology to reduce emissions
simply isn't there or isn't politically acceptable. . . .
Their law requires a 25% reduction in overall emissions while,
thanks to all kinds of immigration, population growth rises
rapidly. . . . But let's dream that California does lead the
nation and even the world, and that every industrialized
nation magically achieves a California-size reduction in
emissions. According to scientists from the U.S.
National Center for Atmospheric Research, the
amount of warming these reductions would prevent by the year
2060 is 0.05 degrees Celsius. |
| Summer's running out like an unplugged
fan... but not the news |
| Seattle
Post-Intelligencer (September 6, 2006) circ. 699,000 |
By Robert McClure |
| . . . We've never been able to figure
out whether this link between climate change and more intense
hurricanes is real or not. But we haven't looked into it that
carefully, either, since we're not particularly vulnerable to
them here in the Pacific Northwest. Well, tomorrow the enviro
PR firm Resource Media promises to deliver the goods, with a
teleconference for reporters with four scientists including
Tom Wigley of the National Center for
Atmospheric Research. If they come up with something
you can link to, we'll do so here. (Leading climate-change
skeptic Patrick Michaels recently hit on the hurricane theory
as well as other climate matters in this recent piece called
"Is the Sky Really Falling? A Review of Recent Global Warming
Scare Stories." The title makes it sound like he's going after
the news media, but if you get into it you'll see it's the
same old thing, Michaels taking issue with what other
virtually all the other scientists actively studying this
topic are reporting.) |
| Other Stories from the Past Two
Weeks as of September 19, 2006 |
| back to
top |
| Editorial: The rest of the story -
Boulder's role vital to global-warming research
|
| Daily
Camera (Boulder) (September 18, 2006) circ. 33,000 |
|
| Over the past decade, Boulder has
been a frequent target of nationwide media mockery, some
valid, but much of it inflated and uninformed, because of
scandals emanating from the University of Colorado and the
investigation into the murder of JonBenet Ramsey. But 20 years
from now, those stories will be mere footnotes, if that, in a
world dealing with the impacts of global warming. . . . In
Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, a study co-authored by
In Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, a study co-authored
by National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist Tom
Wigley found that variations in the sun's brightness due to
sunspots and other phenomena are too small to account for
warming. On the brighter side (or is it dimmer?), a study in
the journal Science by Wigley — busy man — found that
atmospheric application of aerosols could slow the pace of
warming and give humanity some breathing room when it comes to
cutting back greenhouse-gas emissions. National Center
for Atmospheric Research scientist Tom
Wigley found that variations in the sun's brightness
due to sunspots and other phenomena are too small to account
for warming. On the brighter side (or is it dimmer?), a study
in the journal Science by Wigley — busy man — found that
atmospheric application of aerosols could slow the pace of
warming and give humanity some breathing room when it comes to
cutting back greenhouse-gas emissions.
|
| Free DSCOVR! - A climate satellite is
built and paid for. Nations offer to launch it for free.
Scientists say it's an essential mission. So what's it doing
in a box outside DC? |
| Seed
(September 18, 2006) circ. 100,000 |
By Mitchell Anderson |
| . . . Could the decision to kill
DSCOVR have anything to do with the politics of climate
science? For years, Republicans have claimed the need for more
data before acting to curb global warming. A letter President
Bush wrote to four Republican senators in March 2001 (after
DSCOVR's endorsement by a National Academy of Sciences review
panel) referred to "the incomplete state of scientific
knowledge of the causes of, and solutions to, global climate
change." More recently, in a 2005 briefing, White House Press
Secretary Scott McClellan asserted that "there is still a lot
of uncertainty when it comes to the science of climate
change." Dr. Kevin Trenberth, Head of the
Climate Analysis Section at National Center for
Atmospheric Research, said, "It is as if the
administration prefers to continue to hide behind lack of
definitive data as an excuse for lack of action and
leadership." |
| Climate Change - Support Voiced For
Geo-Engineering Research To Combat Global Warming
|
| Chemical
& Engineering News (September 18, 2006) circ.
136,267 |
By Ivan Amato |
| The call to at least consider
audacious geo-engineering steps that would fill the
stratosphere with globe-cooling aerosols to check global
warming got louder last week. In Science, Tom M. L.
Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric
Research, in Boulder, Colo., writes that reducing
carbon dioxide emissions is the long-term solution to global
warming but that nearer term engineering of the atmosphere
might provide "additional time to address the economic and
technological challenges faced by a mitigation-only approach".
. . . Wigley has quite visibly joined Crutzen in this view,
this time running several aerosol-producing scenarios through
a simple atmospheric model. Adding just 5 million metric tons
of sulfur dioxide annually to the stratosphere to produce
sunlight-reflecting clouds or a light-scattering haze "would
have a significant influence," Wigley says.
|
| Epidemic Influenza And Vitamin
D |
| MedicalNewsToday.com (September 15,
2006) |
By J. J. Cannell |
| . . . As I waited for the hospital to
finish collecting data from all the patients taking vitamin D
at the time of the outbreak - to see if it really reduced the
incidence of influenza - I decided to research the literature
thoroughly, finding all the clues in the world's medical
literature that indicated if vitamin D played any role in
preventing influenza or other viral respiratory infections. I
worked on the paper for over a year, writing it with Professor
Edward Giovannucci of Harvard, Professor Reinhold Vieth of the
University of Toronto, Professor Michael Holick of Boston
University, Professor Cedric Garland of U.C., San Diego, as
well as Dr. John Umhau of the National Institute of Health,
Sasha Madronich of the National
Center for Atmospheric Research, and Dr. Bill Grant
at the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center. After
numerous revisions, we submitted our paper to the same widely
respected journal where Dr. Hope-Simpson published most of his
work several decades ago. Epidemiology and Infection, known as
The Journal of Hygiene in Hope-Simpson's day, recently
published our paper. |
| New research model shows El Nino's
effect on drought - Riddle behind failure of monsoons may be
solved |
| Daily
Camera (Boulder) (September 15, 2006) circ. 33,000 |
By Boonsri Dickinson |
| Boulder researchers have shown that
El Nino events evolving in the central Pacific doomed Indian
monsoons to failure — and until now, predicting the droughts
has been hit or miss. El Nino, an abnormal warming of surface
ocean waters in the tropical Pacific, is not as mysterious as
historical rainfall records might reveal. . . . "It takes into
account not just that there is an El Nino but also the
character of the El Nino," said Kevin
Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at
the National Center for Atmospheric Research,
whose earlier work on El Nino indices serves as the basis for
Rajagopalan’s model. "As all El Ninos differ, this means these
differences can be factored into the effect on India and
elsewhere," he said. |
| Aerosols could slow global warming -
NCAR scientist says technique could buy time to cut greenhouse
gases |
| Daily
Camera (Boulder) (September 15, 2006) circ. 33,000 |
By Laura Snider |
| . . . Tom Wigley, a
National Center for Atmospheric Research
senior scientist, used a computer model to compare two
possible scenarios for slowing climate warming: one relying
exclusively on reducing greenhouse gases; and one that pairs
emission reduction with injections of sulfates, or aerosols,
into the stratosphere. What he found was that preventing the
Earth from warming 2 degrees Celsius — the amount of warming
often cited as the threshold for dangerous climate change —
with emission reduction alone would be a colossal task. . . .
"What I'm suggesting is not curing the problem solely with
geoengineering, but using a little geoengineering to gain time
to solve the problem of carbon dioxide more holistically,"
Wigley said. |
| WB2 News At Nine
|
KWGN-TV CH
2 (WB) Denver (September 14, 2006) DMA: 18
09:00 PM -
10:00 PM |
|
| 00:32:55 Global Warming: Could
aerosols be good for the environment? The National
Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder just put
out a study suggesting just that. The study says injections of
certain aerosols could help cool the earth, slowing global
warming. It’s an affect similar to the one created by a
volcano in 1991. V; Building in mountains. I; Tom
Wigley: “The silver oxide that we would put into the
stratosphere would then form very small droplets of sulfuric
acid, and they would reflect back incoming solar radiation,
and they would have a cooling effect.” The idea is to cool the
earth by the time it would take to make drastic cuts in the
use of fossil fuels. 00:33:33 |
| Global warming not from sun
|
| Daily
Camera (Boulder) (September 14, 2006) circ. 33,000 |
|
| Changes in the sun's brightness over
the past millennium have been too small to account for global
warming, according to a new study that includes research from
Boulder's National Center for Atmospheric
Research. The study, titled "Variations in Solar
Luminosity and Their Effect on the Earth's Climate," was
published today in the journal Nature. NCAR scientist
Tom Wigley was among its co-authors. . . .
"Our results imply that, over the past century, climate change
due to human influences must far outweigh the effects of
changes in the sun's brightness," Wigley said in the release.
| |
