2013 SkS Weekly News Roundup #13

Asia cuts its carbon faster than Europe
Climate change now seen as security threat worldwide
Coal and coral: Australia's self-destructive paradox
Do global climate tipping points exist?
Drier climate will spread diarrhoea
How global warming has prevented Spring's arrival
Most in U.S. concerned about sea level rise
Old King Coal keeps rollin’ along
Our carbon, our climate, our cash
Two key climate change concepts are ‘misunderstood’
Volcanic eruption in Iceland did little to lower CO2

Asia cuts its carbon faster than Europe

Producing more goods and services while emitting less carbon is the dream of many economists. In the race to see which countries can best manage to do this, East Asia is stealing a march on the US and Europe. And contrary to popular conceptions, China is now making faster progress than Germany and the United Kingdom towards competitiveness in tomorrow’s low-carbon world.

Climate will harm Mekong Basin harvests

Within 40 years densely-populated south east Asia, whose agricultural exports also feed many millions beyond its borders, will be experiencing the full impacts of climate change, a study says.

Coal and coral: Australia's self-destructive paradox

NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 5: A return to shore finds that people prefer cars to corals.

Do global climate tipping points exist?

An academic debate ponders whether Earth's climate could change precipitously, and how unmitigated regional stressors could irrevocably alter the planet.

Drier climate will spread diarrhoea

Researchers say they have found a clear link between climate change and the spread of diarrhoea and similar diseases in one African country. But the nature of the link may be unexpected.

How global warming has prevented Spring's arrival

Well now, it turns out that spring's slow arrival in the US is likely being driven by changes half a world way, in the Arctic.

Some of the nation's most prominent climate researchers announced at a news conference on Tuesday that melting Arctic sea ice may actually be the culprit behind winter's refusal to pack its bags and leave.

Scientists from NOAA and various university climatology departments said that melting Arctic sea ice may be weakening the planet's jet stream currents, and causing extreme weather systems to linger in the United States.

Most in U.S. concerned about sea level rise, poll finds

Nearly three-fourths of respondents agree that rising sea level resulting from climate change is a threat to the U.S., and 82% believe we should prepare for the effects.

Old King Coal keeps rollin’ along

Emissions by the US of greenhouse gases are still coming down – within the USA itself. But American exports of coal, and now of shale gas, are on the rise, in effect exporting the pollution which has been avoided at home.

Our carbon, our climate, our cash

We all buy stuff that generates carbon dioxide emissions and threatens the stability of our climate. We don’t directly pay the resulting costs, which are postponed to a vague and indefinite future in which none of us can be held individually accountable for a devastating increase in the level and variability of average global temperatures.

A tax on carbon consumption could help solve the problem, bringing the prices of carbon-intensive goods and services into closer alignment with their true costs and discouraging us all from buying more of them.

Two key climate change concepts are ‘misunderstood’

There is widespread confusion about the near-term benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and that misunderstanding may be complicating the formidable task of reducing manmade global warming, argue two climate researchers in Science in a story published Thursday.

Volcanic eruption in Iceland did little to lower CO2

Plankton, tiny marine organisms, are a good way of cleansing the atmosphere of one of the main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide. To do this they need dissolved iron to help them to grow, and if they lack iron then they cannot do much to reduce CO2 levels.

So the eruption in 2010 of an Icelandic volcano gave scientists a perfect opportunity to see how much the cataclysm helped the plankton by showering them with unexpected clouds or iron.

Their verdict, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters – the volcano certainly helped, but not for long enough to make much difference.