Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumEarth warming (wait for it...) Faster Than Expected
By 2050, global average temperature could be between 1.4°C and 3°C warmer than it was just a couple of decades ago, according to a new study that seeks to address the largest sources of uncertainty in current climate models. That's substantially higher than estimates produced by other climate analyses, suggesting that Earth's climate could warm much more quickly than previously thought.Many factors affect global and regional climate, including planet-warming "greenhouse" gases, solar activity, light-scattering atmospheric pollutants, and heat transfer among the land, sea, and air, to name just a few. There are so many influences to consider that it makes determining the effect of any one factordespite years and sometimes decades of measurementsdifficult.
Daniel Rowlands, a climate scientist at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and his colleagues took a stab at addressing the largest sources of short-term climate uncertainty by modifying a version of one climate model used by the United Kingdom's meteorological agency. In their study, the researchers tweaked the parameters that influence three factors in the model: the sensitivity of climate to changes in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the rate at which oceans absorb heat from the atmosphere, and the amount of cooling from light-scattering aerosols in the atmosphere.
Then the team analyzed the results of thousands of climate simulationseach of which had a slightly different combination of parametersthat covered the years between 1920 and 2080, Rowlands says. All of the simulations assumed that future concentrations of greenhouse gases would rise from today's 392 parts per million to 520 ppm by 2050. Each of the runs also allowed for variations in solar activity (which would affect how much the sun's radiation warms Earth) and rates of volcanic activity (which would influence the concentrations of planet-cooling sulfate aerosols in the atmosphere).
More: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/03/earth-warming-faster-than-expected.html
Paper (sub): http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo1430.html
Also:
(BBC) Temperatures could rise by 3C by 2050, models suggest
(UKPA) [link:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5ha41ZeHeRd2ThK1tN5hlXc187qAg?docId=N0086561332645330672A|Fears of 3C global warming by 2050
]
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
6 replies, 1597 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (24)
ReplyReply to this post
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Earth warming (wait for it...) Faster Than Expected (Original Post)
Dead_Parrot
Mar 2012
OP
The planet has a fever. We wouldn't ignore it if we had a fever. We wouldn't deny it.
Gregorian
Mar 2012
#1
She just has a bad case of the humans. Get rid of those parasites and she'll be OK
Champion Jack
Mar 2012
#2
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)1. The planet has a fever. We wouldn't ignore it if we had a fever. We wouldn't deny it.
We'd take the day off work.
Champion Jack
(5,378 posts)2. She just has a bad case of the humans. Get rid of those parasites and she'll be OK
chknltl
(10,558 posts)3. republican war on Terra. (nt)
Viking12
(6,012 posts)5. That's exaclty why I hate that metaphor.
It's completely misanthropic when carried to its logical conclusion.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)4. Sorry, I was out of town
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)6. Just wait until the sea ice is gone. Not much longer.