Daily Archives: September 20, 2011

Editorial
A 2300-Year History of the South American Summer Monsoon: What can it tell us about the temperature of the Medieval Warm Period?

Journal Reviews
Late 20th and Early 21st Century Storminess of the Perth, Australia Region: A new study tests the hypothesis that CO2-induced global warming is increasing the frequency and intensity of storms.

Recent Declines in Northern Rocky Mountain Snow and Runoff: How unusual have they been?

A “Reiter Review” of Global Warming and Malaria: Does the former promote the latter?

Impacts of Climate Change on Pacific Northwest Conifers: How similarly do trees at the upper limits of their altitudinal ranges respond to changes in temperature?

Surviving the Warmth of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum: How many species were able to do it? … how was it done? .. and why do we care?

Ocean Acidification Database
The latest addition of peer-reviewed data archived to our database of marine organism responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment is Serpent Star [Ophiura ophiura]. To access the entire database, click here.

Plant Growth Database
Our latest results of plant growth responses to atmospheric CO2 enrichment obtained from experiments described in the peer-reviewed scientific literature are: Sage (Nowak et al., 2010) and Smut Grass (Manea et al., 2011).

Medieval Warm Period Project
Was there a Medieval Warm Period? YES, according to data published by 1008 individual scientists from 578 research institutions in 44 different countries … and counting! This issue’s Medieval Warm Period Record comes from Fournier Swamp, New Caledonia. To access the entire Medieval Warm Period Project’s database, click here.

World Temperatures Database
Back by popular demand and upgraded to allow patrons more choices to plot and view the data, we reintroduce the World Temperatures section of our website. Here, users may plot temperatures for the entire globe or regions of the globe. A newly added feature allows patrons the ability to plot up to six independent datasets on the same graph. Try it today. World Temperatures Database. (co2science.org)

New Paper “Land Use/Land Cover Changes And Climate: Modeling Analysis And Observational Evidence” By Pielke Sr Et Al 2011

We have a new paper that has been accepted for publication, that summarizes the current understanding of the role of land use/land cover changes on the climate system, as well as proposes approaches to further advance our understanding. The paper is

Pielke Sr., R.A., A. Pitman, D. Niyogi, R. Mahmood, C. McAlpine, F. Hossain, K. Goldewijk, U. Nair, R. Betts, S. Fall, M. Reichstein, P. Kabat, and N. de Noblet-Ducoudré, 2011: Land use/land cover changes and climate: Modeling analysis and observational evidence. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, Invited paper, in press. (Roger Pielke Sr.)

New paper shows clouds have a large negative-feedback cooling effect

A paper published last week in the journal Meteorological Applications undermines a key assumption of the theory of man-made global warming, finding that the cooling effect of clouds far outweighs a supposed ‘greenhouse’ warming effect. Alarmists claim clouds have an overall ‘positive-feedback’ warming effect upon climate due to ‘back-radiation’ of the ‘greenhouse’ gas water vapor. This new paper based on satellite measurements finds instead that clouds have a large net cooling effect by blocking solar radiation and increasing radiative cooling outside the tropics. The cooling effect is found to be -21 Watts per meter squared, more than 17 times the supposed warming effect from a doubling of CO2 concentrations [1.2 W/m2]. Another key assumption of the AGW theory topples in the face of real-world data showing the net feedback from clouds is strongly negative. (Hockey Schtick)