Skeptical Science New Research for Week #42, 2019
Posted on 22 October 2019 by Doug Bostrom
54 articles, 18 open access
When positives are a negative
Nature Climate Change highlights Susan Natali's Large loss of CO2 in winter observed across the northern permafrost region, observing:
Warming in the Arctic is causing soils to decompose more rapidly, even during winter. Now, estimates of winter carbon dioxide loss indicate that it can offset carbon gains during the growing season, meaning that the region is a source of carbon.
We need another positive feedback like we need a hole in the head. Outcomes like this increase the weight of mitigation lifts we are currently failing to perform.
Speedier equilibrium opens a horizon of opportunity?
Geophysical Research Letters notes an article by D. Saint?Martin, Fast?Forward to Perturbed Equilibrium Climate, remarking:
The Earth system responds on a range of timescales to a change in radiative forcing, and full equilibration takes centuries to millennia in many models. In their recent paper, [D.Saint-Martin et al] propose a technique for reaching a faster equilibrium temperature response to alternative CO2 concentration levels by briefly overshooting the desired concentration level to warm the deep ocean faster than a conventional step?change experiment. Understanding how these timescales interact is essential for better representing the relationship between transient climate change and the warming which should be expected as greenhouse gas concentrations stabilize. But, the technique also raises new possibilities about how Earth System Models could be developed, and whether we could gain the capacity to spin up alternative model configurations such as perturbed parameter simulations or alternative control states to explore historical forcing uncertainty.
Cow tuning for a better tomorrow
Adjusting input variables to dairy cattle so as to optimize for maximized milk output and minimized CO2 hoofprint is explored by Brandt et al with their Intensification of dairy production can increase the GHG mitigation potential of the land use sector in East Africa. The authors find that— according to their results— there is potential to significantly expand dairy production while distinctly shrinking both CO2 intensity and (less dramatically) overall emissions from this sector, while also reducing loss of forest productivity. The devil may be in the details and the need to attend to those; the authors note the potential for problems if inputs are not scrupulously sourced.
Articles:
Physical science of anthropogenic global warming
Rapid CO2 release from eroding permafrost in seawater
Water vapour adjustments and responses differ between climate drivers (open access)
Observation of global warming and global warming effects
Large loss of CO2 in winter observed across the northern permafrost region
Temperatures across Europe: evidence of time trends
The Indian Ocean Deep Meridional Overturning Circulation in three Ocean Reanalysis Products
Patch aggregation trends of the global climate landscape under future global warming scenario
Are global tropical cyclones moving slower in a warming climate? (open access)
Modeling global warming and global warming effects
Fast?Forward to Perturbed Equilibrium Climate
How Robust is the Atmospheric Response to Projected Arctic Sea?Ice Loss Across Climate Models?
Testing for dynamical dependence ?? Application to the surface mass balance over Antarctica
Sea?level science on the frontier of usability (open access)
Is the net cloud radiative effect constrained to be uniform over the tropical warm pools?
Visualizing climate change adaptation: An effective tool for agricultural outreach?
Understanding future changes in tropical cyclogenesis using Self-Organizing Maps
Enhanced equatorial warming causes deep-tropical contraction and subtropical monsoon shift
Humans dealing with our global warming
Taxing crude oil: A financing alternative to mitigate climate change?
The impact of climate mitigation measures on near term climate forcers (open access)
Emotional foundations of the public climate change divide
Social readiness of adaptation technologies
Review of indicators for comparing environmental effects across energy sources (open access)
Frames, facts, and the science of communicating environmental crises
Measuring climate resilience by linking shocks to development outcomes
Contribution of the land sector to a 1.5 °C world
Climate change and disasters: The ethics of leadership
Biology and global warming
Pathway dependence of ecosystem responses in China to 1.5 °C global warming (open access)
Priority effects will impede range shifts of temperate tree species into the boreal forest
Global warming and artificial shorelines reshape seashore biogeography
Multi?scale integration of tree recruitment and range dynamics in a changing climate
Ecological resilience of Arctic marine food webs to climate change
The effect of plant physiological responses to rising CO2 on global streamflow
Special:
The end of the wait for Climate Sensitivity?
Suggestions
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The abstract of "Are global tropical cyclones moving slower in a warming climate?" concludes that AGW is likely *not* having an effect on cyclone speed. (Betteridge's law should have been a clue).
Not far below the abstract the following is stated. Note the use of "may" regarding claims that are implied to support the suggestions of this paper.
"Recently, Kossin (2018a) reported that the global tropical-cyclone translation speed over the 68 year period 1949–2016 was slowing down by 10% and implicitly related this to the weakening of the tropical circulation forced by the anthropogenic warming (Held and Soden 2006, Vecchi et al 2006, Vecchi and Soden 2007, Coumou et al 2015, He and Soden 2015, Grise and Polvani 2017, Mann et al 2017). He thereby suggested that it might result in more local rainfall totals in the warming climate, particularly over land. Such findings and implications have been widely interpreted, broadcasted and forwarded by various social media and sectors since then (Guglielmi 2018, Patricola 2018, Shultz et al 2018). Unfortunately, his study was imprecise and questioned. The early work of the present study pointed out two deficits in his calculation of tropical-cyclone translation speed and an author correction had been made after (Kossin 2018b). Although the correction shows no material impact on the key conclusions of the original study on a global scale, it has a number of varying effects on regional scales. Such varying effects are more apparent for tropical cyclones over land. On top of that, this study further suggests that the slowdown of global tropical-cyclone translation speed stated by Kossin (2018a) may not be a real climate signal or it may be exaggerated, which is consistent with what Moon et al (2019) and Lanzante (2019) commented coincidentally."
One Planet, I'm not sure what point you are trying to make. The paper is clearly intended as a counter to the claims of cyclone slowing. The authors argue there's no evidence for it, so this paper shouldn't be listed in a group called "Observation of global warming and global warming effects" (its whole purpose is to argue that the case for this being one of its effects is weak to non-existent).
In the abstract of the paper Dawei mentions, we read this:
The paper goes on to discuss the author Chan's reasons for disagreement with the paper he cites. Both papers are discussing effects of global warming, Chan in a slightly more histrionic but otherwise standard format. Finding a negative result does not vanish the topic, so to speak.
Dawei@3,
Doug has provided a good reponse regarding the section the Report is listed under.
I will provide the following in an effort to respond to the other parts of your comment.
The abstract ends with the following: "The relationship between the slowdown of tropical cyclones and anthropogenic warming is therefore not apparent and the relevant potential increase in local rainfall totals in the future warming climate is suspicious."
That appears to be inconsistent with claiming "...that AGW is likely *not* having an effect on cyclone speed".
My comment was pointing out that, in addition to reading the complete abstarct, reading just a little further raises even more doubts about the claim "...that AGW is likely *not* having an effect on cyclone speed".
Along the lines of Doug's point regarding the category for the Report, claiming to doubt a conclusion of another report that has already been corrected without the corrections affecting the conclusions seems to indicate that serious skepticism should be applied regarding the claims this report appears to try to make. The author is not refuting the revised conclusion of the other report. They appear to be trying to tell a different story based on their personal interpretations of selective information.
Dawei@3,
The following points may clarify my thoughts regarding "Are global tropical cyclones moving slower in a warming climate?", specific regarding it suporting a claim "...that AGW is likely *not* having an effect on cyclone speed":