Skeptical Science New Research for Week #36 2022

Posted on 8 September 2022 by Doug Bostrom, Marc Kodack

A need for speed: Thwaites Glacier

Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier is a major subject of preoccupation for people who study the polar portions of our cryosphere with an eye toward glacier dynamics. The glacier and particularly the portion lying below sea level are cause for concern due to a combination of poor stability and a huge, easily mobilized volume of ice upstream, volume which if/when melted will translate into sea level rise we'll have serious trouble handling. The ice in the ocean and its dependability as a check on what's above depends on details of its grounding line on the sea bottom, how that line behaves. 

In general, the slower Thwaites fails, the better for us. There is a good deal of uncertainty about how we might expect Thwaites to behave in the near future, precisely how the grounding line "works" in real life. We can model how Thwaite's evolution might unfold, but for many reasons models are far better with constraints derived from empirical data. 

Thus, research revealing precise past behavior of Thwaites during the recent past (unaffected by global deglaciation and other masking factors) is very welcome.  Rapid retreat of Thwaites Glacier in the pre-satellite era by Graham et al. and just published in Nature Geoscience is exactly this. Unfortunately, the authors' findings are not very comforting. In the satellite era we've seen some remarkable surges of speed of retreat by the Thwaites ice shelf but as it turns out, this paper's scrupulously assembled investigation suggests we shouldn't be surprised to see much higher rates. This latest news comes on the heels of numerous studies hinting at a general speedup of the ice shelf's retreat and decay. 

Other notables:

Cirrus cloud thinning using a more physically based ice microphysics scheme in the ECHAM-HAM general circulation model. A recently imagined geoengineering technique showed promise— until improved physics in models reveals it as likely to exert a powerful, opposite effect to that desired. An object lesson more cheaply purchased than for the price of a big mistake. 

Changes in coastal farming systems in a changing climate in Bangladesh. Because of its geography Bangladesh is among the most climate-vulnerable countries on our planet. This makes present-day changes due to our rapidly changing climate easier to observe and measure. It's neither fair nor by choice but the coastal agriculture of Bangladesh also serves as a laboratory of sorts to help us learn about and understand adaptation as it unfolds in the real world— now.

A weakened AMOC may prolong greenhouse gas–induced Mediterranean drying even with significant and rapid climate change mitigation. Even if we begin to reduce CO2 content in the atmosphere back to more normal levels, winter precipitation in this region may not recover. As the authors remark: "a potential 'surprise' in the climate system, whereby changes in one component (Atlantic Ocean circulation) alter how another component (Mediterranean rainfall) responds to greenhouse gas reductions. Such surprises could complicate climate change mitigation efforts."

The Carbon Capture Crux. A report via our government/NGO section, from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. "Carbon capture" as it exists today is essentially a tool for helping us to liberate and monetize more fossil fuels. Areas of failure are rife, counterproductivity looms. A single main area of promise is in the manufacture of cement. 

108 articles in 43 journals by 613 contributing authors

Physical science of climate change, effects

Drivers and distribution of global ocean heat uptake over the last half century
Huguenin et al., [journal not provided], 10.5194/egusphere-egu22-2076

Has Arctic sea ice loss contributed to weakening winter and strengthening summer polar front jets over the Eastern Hemisphere?
Kang et al., Climate Dynamics, 10.1007/s00382-022-06444-5

Observations of climate change, effects

Australian wildfire smoke in the stratosphere: the decay phase in 2020/2021 and impact on ozone depletion
Ohneiser et al., Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Open Access pdf 10.5194/acp-22-7417-2022

Climate related trends in US hazardous material releases caused by natural hazards
Santella, Natural Hazards, Open Access 10.1007/s11069-022-05572-9

Earlier ice loss accelerates lake warming in the Northern Hemisphere
Li et al., Nature Communications, Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-022-32830-y

Extreme heat in New Zealand: a synthesis
Harrington & Frame Frame, Climatic Change, Open Access pdf 10.1007/s10584-022-03427-7

Has the Anthropocene affected the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones? Evidence from Mascarene Islands historical records (southwestern Indian Ocean)
Marriner et al., Global and Planetary Change, 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2022.103933

Opposite trends of sea-breeze speeds and gusts in Eastern Spain, 1961–2019
Bedoya-Valestt et al., Climate Dynamics, Open Access pdf 10.1007/s00382-022-06473-0

Spatiotemporal Changes in Frost Indicators in Southeastern Spain (1950–2020): Influence of the East Atlantic Index (EA)
Sánchez et al., Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 10.1175/jamc-d-21-0064.1

Instrumentation & observational methods of climate change, effects

Deep learning for early warning signals of tipping points
Bury et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Open Access pdf 10.1073/pnas.2106140118

High-resolution global maps of tidal flat ecosystems from 1984 to 2019
Murray et al., Scientific Data, Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41597-022-01635-5

Unravelling the backbone of climate networks from the analysis of collective dynamics and time reversal
Naghipour et al., International Journal of Climatology, 10.1002/joc.7547

Modeling, simulation & projection of climate change, effects

Atmospheric circulation constraints on 21st century seasonal precipitation storylines for the southwestern United States
Grise, Geophysical Research Letters, 10.1029/2022gl099443

Changes in mean and extreme climate in southern South America under global warming of 1.5 °C, 2 °C, and 3 °C
Gulizia et al., Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 10.1007/s00704-022-04199-x

Climate bifurcations in a Schwarzschild equation model of the Arctic atmosphere
Kypke et al., [journal not provided], Open Access pdf 10.5194/npg-2022-2

Hadley cell edge modulates the role of Ekman heat flux in a future climate
Hasan et al., Geophysical Research Letters, 10.1029/2022gl100401

Investigating the relative contribution of anthropogenic increase in GHG and LULCC to Asian climate: a dynamical downscaling study
Zhang et al., International Journal of Climatology, 10.1002/joc.7854

North Atlantic overturning and water mass transformation in CMIP6 models
Jackson & Petit, Climate Dynamics, 10.1007/s00382-022-06448-1

Projected changes in Feddema climate characteristics in the Larger Carpathian Region by the end of the 21st century
Szabó et al., International Journal of Climatology, Open Access 10.1002/joc.7558

Seasonal circulation regimes in the North Atlantic: Towards a new seasonality
Breton et al., International Journal of Climatology, 10.1002/joc.7565

Suppressed Atlantic Niño/Niña variability under greenhouse warming
Yang et al., Nature Climate Change, 10.1038/s41558-022-01444-z

Weakening of the Atlantic Niño variability under global warming
Crespo et al., Nature Climate Change, Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41558-022-01453-y

Advancement of climate & climate effects modeling, simulation & projection

A global climate model ensemble for downscaled monthly climate normals over North America
Mahony et al., International Journal of Climatology, Open Access pdf 10.1002/joc.7566

Bivariate bias correction of the regional climate model ensemble over the Adriatic region
Sokol Jurkovi? et al., International Journal of Climatology, 10.1002/joc.7564

Changes in early summer precipitation characteristics over South China and Taiwan: CESM2-LE and CMIP6 multi-model simulations and projections
Huang et al., Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 10.1029/2022jd037181

Changes in Global Ocean Circulation due to Isopycnal Diffusion
Chouksey et al., Journal of Physical Oceanography, 10.1175/jpo-d-21-0205.1

How do coupled models represent the African Easterly Jets and their associated dynamics over Central Africa during the September–November rainy season?
Kuete et al., Climate Dynamics, Open Access pdf 10.1007/s00382-022-06467-y

Process informed selection of climate models for climate change impact assessment in the Western Coast of India
George & Athira, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 10.1007/s00704-022-04197-z

Cryosphere & climate change

Allometric scaling of retrogressive thaw slumps
van der Sluijs et al., [journal not provided], Open Access pdf 10.5194/tc-2022-149

Atmospheric forcing dominates winter Barents-Kara sea ice variability on interannual to decadal time scales
Liu et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 10.1073/pnas.2120770119

Natural climate variability is an important aspect of future projections of snow water resources and rain-on-snow events
Schirmer et al., The Cryosphere, Open Access pdf 10.5194/tc-16-3469-2022

Pan-Arctic melt pond fraction trend, variability, and contribution to sea ice changes
Feng et al., Global and Planetary Change, 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2022.103932

Rapid retreat of Thwaites Glacier in the pre-satellite era
Graham et al., Nature Geoscience, Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41561-022-01019-9

Warming-induced monsoon precipitation phase change intensifies glacier mass loss in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau
Jouberton et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 10.1073/pnas.2109796119

Paleoclimate

Early warning signal for a tipping point suggested by a millennial Atlantic Multidecadal Variability reconstruction
Michel et al., Nature Communications, Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-022-32704-3

The Holocene temperature conundrum answered by mollusk records from East Asia
Dong et al., Nature Communications, Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-022-32506-7

Biology & climate change, related geochemistry

Acidification, deoxygenation, and nutrient and biomass declines in a warming Mediterranean Sea
Reale et al., [journal not provided], Open Access pdf 10.5194/bg-2021-301

Distribution and predicted climatic refugia for a reef-building cold-water coral on the southeast US margin
Gasbarro et al., Global Change Biology, 10.1111/gcb.16415

Numerical Simulation on the Effects of Global Warming on Vegetation in Asia
Zhang & Zhai, Advances in Climate Change Research, Open Access 10.1016/j.accre.2022.08.005

Rebuilding fish biomass for the world's marine ecoregions under climate change
Cheung et al., Global Change Biology, 10.1111/gcb.16368

Whither warming in the Galápagos?
Karnauskas, PLOS Climate, Open Access pdf 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000056

GHG sources & sinks, flux, related geochemistry

A process-model perspective on recent changes in the carbon cycle of North America
Murray?Tortarolo et al., Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 10.1029/2022jg006904

Annual carbon sequestration and loss rates under altered hydrology and fire regimes in southeastern USA pocosin peatlands
Richardson et al., Global Change Biology, 10.1111/gcb.16366

Atmospheric data support a multi-decadal shift in the global methane budget towards natural tropical emissions
Drinkwater et al., [journal not provided], Open Access pdf 10.5194/acp-2022-561

Dispersal of bacteria and stimulation of permafrost decomposition by Collembola
Monteux et al., Biogeosciences, Open Access pdf 10.5194/bg-19-4089-2022

Key driver analysis of greenhouse gas emissions in Thailand's public bus transport with comparative study on metropolitan Bangkok hotspots
Champeecharoensuk et al., Energy for Sustainable Development, 10.1016/j.esd.2022.08.019

Modeling and forecasting of CO2 emissions resulting from air transport with genetic algorithms: the United Kingdom case
Demir, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 10.1007/s00704-022-04203-4

Regressions underestimate the direct effect of soil moisture on land carbon sink variability
Wang et al., Global Change Biology, 10.1111/gcb.16422

Satellite quantification of oil and natural gas methane emissions in the US and Canada including contributions from individual basins
Shen et al., [journal not provided], Open Access pdf 10.5194/acp-2022-155

CO2 capture, sequestration science & engineering

Microspectroscopic visualization of how biochar lifts the soil organic carbon ceiling
Weng et al., Nature Communications, Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-022-32819-7

Decarbonization

A unit commitment and economic dispatch model of the GB electricity market – Formulation and application to hydro pumped storage
Chyong & Newbery Newbery, Energy Policy, Open Access 10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113213

Future greenhouse gas emissions of automotive lithium-ion battery cell production
Xu et al., Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Open Access 10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106606

Hydrogen relative permeability hysteresis in underground storage
Lysyy et al., Geophysical Research Letters, 10.1029/2022gl100364

Optimal gust wind energy capture using critical tracking frequency for wind turbines
Li et al., Wind Energy, 10.1002/we.2776

Pre-feasibility methodology to compare productive uses of energy supplied by stand-alone solar photovoltaic systems: A Tanzanian case study
Little & Blanchard, Energy for Sustainable Development, Open Access 10.1016/j.esd.2022.08.018

Prospects of halide-based all-solid-state batteries: From material design to practical application
Wang et al., Science Advances, 10.1126/sciadv.adc9516

Socio-economic impacts of solar energy technologies for sustainable green energy: a review
Abdalla et al., Environment, Development and Sustainability, 10.1007/s10668-022-02654-3

Techno-economic assessment of bioenergy potential on marginal croplands in the U.S. southeast
Wu et al., Energy Policy, 10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113215

Geoengineering climate

Cirrus cloud thinning using a more physically based ice microphysics scheme in the ECHAM-HAM general circulation model
Tully et al., Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Open Access pdf 10.5194/acp-22-11455-2022

Aerosols

Long–term upper–troposphere climatology of potential contrail occurrence over the Paris area derived from radiosonde observations
Wolf et al., [journal not provided], Open Access pdf 10.5194/acp-2022-584

Climate change communications & cognition

Decision-making process related to climate change mitigation among married-couple households: A case study of Taiwan
Hung & Wang, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 10.1007/s11027-022-10029-2

Fear emotion reduces reported mitigation behavior in adolescents subject to climate change education
Wang & Chen, Climatic Change, 10.1007/s10584-022-03419-7

Agronomy, animal husbundry, food production & climate change

A stakeholders’ pathway towards a future land use and food system in Germany
Rasche et al., Sustainability Science, Open Access pdf 10.1007/s11625-022-01212-0

Agricultural intensification vs. climate change: what drives long-term changes in sediment load?
Wang et al., [journal not provided], Open Access pdf 10.5194/hess-2021-567

Assessing the Economic Resilience of Different Management Systems to Severe Forest Disturbance
Knoke et al., Environmental and Resource Economics, Open Access pdf 10.1007/s10640-022-00719-5

Changes in coastal farming systems in a changing climate in Bangladesh
Hasan & Kumar, Regional Environmental Change, Open Access pdf 10.1007/s10113-022-01962-8

Effects of climate change on forest plantation productivity in Chile
Carrasco et al., Global Change Biology, 10.1111/gcb.16418

Future impacts of Urban and Peri-urban agriculture on carbon stock and land surface temperatures in India
Sagar et al., Urban Climate, 10.1016/j.uclim.2022.101267

Maize phenological response to climate warming weakened over 1981-2018 due to cultivar shifts
Luo et al., Advances in Climate Change Research, Open Access 10.1016/j.accre.2022.08.007

Response to climate change in a rain-fed crop production system: insights from maize farmers of western Kenya
Kogo et al., Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Open Access pdf 10.1007/s11027-022-10023-8

Socioeconomic resilience to climatic extremes in a freshwater fishery
Cline et al., Science Advances, 10.1126/sciadv.abn1396

Sustainable evaluation of agroecosystem in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China based on the Emergy Theory
Dong & Liu, Environment, Development and Sustainability, 10.1007/s10668-022-02627-6

The carbon budget of the managed grasslands of Great Britain – informed by earth observations
Myrgiotis et al., Biogeosciences, Open Access pdf 10.5194/bg-19-4147-2022

The impacts of agricultural development and trade on CO2 emissions? Evidence from the Non-European Union countries
Balogh, Environmental Science & Policy, Open Access 10.1016/j.envsci.2022.08.012

Hydrology, hydrometeorology & climate change

A weakened AMOC may prolong greenhouse gas–induced Mediterranean drying even with significant and rapid climate change mitigation
Delworth et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Open Access 10.1073/pnas.2116655119

Association between recent U.S. northeast precipitation trends and Greenland blocking
Simonson et al., International Journal of Climatology, 10.1002/joc.7555

Climate and land management accelerate the Brazilian water cycle
Chagas et al., Nature Communications, Open Access pdf 10.1038/s41467-022-32580-x

Historical droughts in Irish catchments 1767–2016
O'Connor et al., International Journal of Climatology, Open Access 10.1002/joc.7542

Improving the interpretation of standardized precipitation index estimates to capture drought characteristics in changing climate conditions
Blain et al., International Journal of Climatology, 10.1002/joc.7550

Slightly enhanced drought in the Yellow River Basin under future warming scenarios
Li et al., Atmospheric Research, 10.1016/j.atmosres.2022.106423

Summer hot extremes and antecedent drought conditions in Australia
Páscoa et al., International Journal of Climatology, Open Access pdf 10.1002/joc.7544

The evaluation of climate change impact on hydrologic processes of a mountain river basin
Adhikari et al., Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 10.1007/s00704-022-04204-3

Western and Central Tropical Pacific Rainfall Response to Climate Change: Sensitivity to Projected Sea Surface Temperature Patterns
Dutheil et al., Journal of Climate, Open Access pdf 10.1175/jcli-d-22-0062.1

Climate change economics

Poverty and inequality implications of carbon pricing under the long-term climate target
Zhao et al., Sustainability Science, Open Access pdf 10.1007/s11625-022-01206-y

The dynamic nexus between biocapacity, renewable energy, green finance, and ecological footprint: evidence from South Asian economies
Sampene et al., International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 10.1007/s13762-022-04471-7

Understanding, mapping and reporting of climate-related risks among listed firms in Sweden
Andersson & Arvidsson, Climate Policy, Open Access pdf 10.1080/14693062.2022.2116383

Climate change mitigation public policy research

A carbon neutral account framework for the Qomolangma mountaineering tourism area
Xu et al., Environment, Development and Sustainability, 10.1007/s10668-022-02651-6

A case for ensuring reductions in CO2 emissions are given priority over reductions in CH4 emissions in the near term
McKeough, Climatic Change, 10.1007/s10584-022-03428-6

Assessing livelihood impact of forest carbon projects using sustainable livelihood framework
Dube & Chatterjee, Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 10.1007/s11027-022-10022-9

Carbon emission disclosures and financial reporting quality: Does ownership structure and economic development matter?
Bilal et al., Environmental Science & Policy, 10.1016/j.envsci.2022.08.004

Co-benefits of regionally-differentiated carbon pricing policies across China
Zhang et al., Climate Policy, 10.1080/14693062.2022.2119198

Communicating the Future of Energy Use: Qualitative Insights into the Efforts of Environmental Groups in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore
Ho et al., Environmental Communication, Open Access pdf 10.1080/17524032.2022.2107553

Embodied carbon emissions and mitigation potential in China's building sector: An outlook to 2060
Zhu et al., Energy Policy, 10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113222

How the future of the global forest sink depends on timber demand, forest management, and carbon policies
Daigneault et al., Global Environmental Change, Open Access 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102582

Inter-sectoral prioritization of climate technologies: insights from a Technology Needs Assessment for mitigation in Brazil
da Silva et al., Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Open Access 10.1007/s11027-022-10025-6

Modeling Intertemporal Trading of Emission Permits Under Market Power
Koromilas et al., Environmental and Resource Economics, 10.1007/s10640-022-00723-9

Pathway to achieve a sustainable food and land-use transition in India
Jha et al., Sustainability Science, Open Access pdf 10.1007/s11625-022-01193-0

Towards net zero: making baselines for international carbon markets dynamic by applying ‘ambition coefficients’
Michaelowa et al., Climate Policy, Open Access pdf 10.1080/14693062.2022.2108366

Climate change adaptation & adaptation public policy research

Assessing observed and projected flood vulnerability under climate change using multi-modeling statistical approaches in the Ouémé River Basin, Benin (West Africa)
Hounkpè et al., Regional Environmental Change, 10.1007/s10113-022-01957-5

Climate change, dietary shift, and traditional norms in the western Himalayan region, India
Das & Mishra, Climate and Development, 10.1080/17565529.2022.2116927

Cross-scale collaboration for adaptation to climate change: a two-mode network analysis of bridging actors in Switzerland
Braunschweiger, Regional Environmental Change, Open Access pdf 10.1007/s10113-022-01958-4

Climate change impacts on human health

Accelerated exacerbation of global extreme heatwaves under warming scenarios
Han et al., International Journal of Climatology, 10.1002/joc.7541

Climate change affects us in the tropics: local perspectives on ecosystem services and well-being sensitivity in Southeast Brazil
Pinho et al., Regional Environmental Change, 10.1007/s10113-022-01938-8

Climate drives the spatiotemporal dynamics of scrub typhus in China
Ding et al., Global Change Biology, 10.1111/gcb.16395

Forest structure and composition alleviate human thermal stress
Gillerot et al., Global Change Biology, 10.1111/gcb.16419

Unusual early peaks of airborne ragweed (Ambrosia L.) pollen in the Pannonian Biogeographical Region
Magyar et al., International Journal of Biometeorology, 10.1007/s00484-022-02348-5

Other

Global trends in the occurrence and characteristics of blocking anticyclones using ?en innovative trend analysis
Efe & Lupo, Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 10.1007/s00704-022-04195-1

Informed opinion, nudges & major initiatives

Towards a “fair-efforts” metric for climate pledges
Rao, PLOS Climate, Open Access pdf 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000069

---

Articles/Reports from Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations Addressing Aspects of Climate Change

What Do Video Gamers Think About Global Warming?, Leiserowitz et al., Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

The report presents results from a national survey, investigating climate change knowledge, attitudes, policy preferences, and behavior among video game players in the United States. Interview were conducted from May 30 – June 7, 2022. Interviews included 2,034 U.S. adults (18+) in the United States who play video games. Video games have become one of humanity’s favorite forms of entertainment, with an estimated 3 billion players worldwide. People of all ages, nationalities, genders, and socioeconomic statuses play, and it is this broad and extensive reach that creates an enormous opportunity to address climate change. Through games, players can acquire new knowledge about the climate crisis and can be empowered to take individual and collective action at any scale and in any location. Members of the broad ecosystem of game developers, climate planners, activists, and communicators are excited about the potential of the video gaming community, but don’t yet understand how to best engage with it. This study helps lay a foundation for engagement that the gaming community can build on.

EV Charger Deployment Optimization, Fuels Institute

The market for electric vehicles (EVs) continues to grow at an accelerating pace, yet there remains great uncertainty regarding how fast these vehicles will gain significant market share, how many chargers we will need, when and where we will need them and what kind of chargers will be required in different locations. Recognizing that billions of dollars would be invested in building out EV charging infrastructure, The authors model what the demand for EV chargers might look like over the next 10 years throughout the United States. The report helps prioritize where those funds should be deployed to most effectively leverage business and taxpayer dollars as well as to deliver the greatest value to drivers.

Loving the Least of These, Boorse et al., National Association of Evangelicals

Record-breaking heat waves, widespread wildfires and other extreme weather events capture people's attention. While the environment affects everyone, the most profound impacts are on those in poverty. The report shows how climate change impacts the world’s most vulnerable.

Climate Change and We'll Being Around the World, Gallup

While much is known about the environmental and economic effects of climate change, there has been less systematic analysis of how rising temperatures affect quality of life around the world. This analysis represents a preliminary effort to quantify and track the impact of rising temperatures on people’s lives by using geospatial information on respondent locations to combine Gallup survey results from 1.75 million people in 160 countries with daily, high-resolution temperature data from NASA. The results allowed the authors to study in detail how objective weather information relates to subjective data on how people around the world evaluate their lives. The findings provide new insight into the significant negative impact rising temperatures have on global quality of life. They also quantify the overall human toll, beyond financial impacts, climate change has had on people’s lives over the past 10 years. And the data project that by 2030, the number of high-temperature days people experience will double.

BAMS report: Record-high greenhouse gases, sea levels in 2021, Blunden and Boyer, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The authors provide a detailed update on global climate indicators, notable weather events, and other data collected by environmental monitoring stations and instruments located on land, water, ice, and in space.

American River Basin Study, Stantec Consulting, Bureau of Reclamation

The authors developed data, tools, analyses, and climate change adaptation strategies specific to the American River Basin. They examined strategies to integrate or better coordinate Local and federal water management practices to improve regional water supply reliability, while enhancing the Bureau of Reclamation’s flexibility in operating Folsom Reservoir to meet flow and water quality standards in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and to protect endangered fishery species in the Lower American River.

Interconnected Disaster Risks, United Nations University

The authors analyze 10 disasters from around the world which were selected for their notoriety and representation of a larger global issue that has changed or will change lives across the world, and identifies solutions that can help to prevent or better manage them.

Climate Change Remains Top Global Threat Across 19-Country Survey, Poushter et al., Pew Research Center

Among the many threats facing the globe, climate change stands out as an especially strong concern among citizens in advanced economies, according to a new survey conducted by the authors. A median of 75% across 19 countries in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region label global climate change as a major threat.

The Carbon Capture Crux, Robertson and Mousavian, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis

Captured carbon has mostly been used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR): enhancing oil production is not a climate solution. Successful CCUS exceptions mainly exist in the natural gas processing sector serving the fossil fuel industry, leading to further emissions. Using carbon capture as a greenlight to extend the life of fossil fuels power plants is a significant financial and technical risk: history confirms this.

Corporate Crackdown Project-Climate, Moran et al., Center for Economic and Policy Research

The authors outline what the Biden executive branch is already doing on climate change and what more it could do under its existing authorities. The authors show that there are still policy options available despite all of the obstacles the system imposes to climate action. If Congress refuses to act further, then executive branch actions which should already have been pursued become that much more urgent. The author's present a suite of policy options based in long-standing government authorities and aimed at revivifying the New Deal administrative state Biden idealizes.

Climate Science in Adaptation Litigation in the U.S, Jacob Elkin, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

While the most prominent climate litigation to date has primarily focused on mitigation—reducing greenhouse gas emissions—adaptation litigation will also increase as climate impacts become more frequent, extreme, and intense. Adaptation cases frequently rely on evidence drawn from scientific research into past and future climate change. In this report, the Sabin Center assesses the role of climate science in cases seeking adaptation measures and cases challenging planned or existing adaptation actions. Key questions include: whether government and corporate defendants have legal discretion to incorporate climate science into their decision-making differently than plaintiffs claim they should, or to ignore certain science altogether; whether the relevant climate impacts are foreseeable enough to justify or mandate adaptation measures that respond to those impacts; whether the relevant climate impacts have already occurred or will occur in a timeframe that is judicially cognizable. Whether the judiciary has the expertise to determine questions pertaining to the validity and significance of climate science, or whether those questions should be left to other branches of government.

---

Obtaining articles without journal subscriptions

We know it's frustrating that many articles we cite here are not free to read. One-off paid access fees are generally astronomically priced, suitable for such as "On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light"  but not as a gamble on unknowns. With a median world income of US$ 9,373, for most of us US$ 42 is significant money to wager on an article's relevance and importance. 

• Here's an excellent collection of tips and techniques for obtaining articles, legally.

• Unpaywall offers a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that automatically indicates when an article is freely accessible and provides immediate access without further trouble. Unpaywall is also unscammy, works well, is itself offered free to use. The organizers (a legitimate nonprofit) report about a 50% success rate

• The weekly New Research catch is checked against the Unpaywall database with accessible items being flagged. Especially for just-published articles this mechansim may fail. If you're interested in an article title and it is not listed here as "open access," be sure to check the link anyway. 

How is New Research assembled?

Most articles appearing here are found via  RSS feeds from journal publishers, filtered by search terms to produce raw output for assessment of relevance. 

Relevant articles are then queried against the Unpaywall database, to identify open access articles and expose useful metadata for articles appearing in the database. 

The objective of New Research isn't to cast a tinge on scientific results, to color readers' impressions. Hence candidate articles are assessed via two metrics only:

• Was an article deemed of sufficient merit by a team of journal editors and peer reviewers? The fact of journal RSS output assigns a "yes" to this automatically. 
• Is an article relevant to the topic of anthropogenic climate change? Due to filter overlap with other publication topics of inquiry, of a typical week's 550 or so input articles about 1/4 of RSS output makes the cut.

A few journals offer public access to "preprint" versions of articles for which the review process is not yet complete. For some key journals this all the mention we'll see in RSS feeds, so we include such items in New Research. These are flagged as "preprint."

The section "Informed opinion, nudges & major initiatives" includes some items that are not scientific research per se but fall instead into the category of "perspectives," observations of implications of research findings, areas needing attention, etc.

Suggestions

Please let us know if you're aware of an article you think may be of interest for Skeptical Science research news, or if we've missed something that may be important. Send your input to Skeptical Science via our contact form.

Journals covered

A list of journals we cover may be found here. We welcome pointers to omissions, new journals etc.

Previous edition

The previous edition of Skeptical Science New Research may be found here.