14th December 2010 Cancun
Outcomes
A last minute deal emerged from the UN climate change talks in
Cancun in Mexico. It included breakthroughs on forest protection,
financing for adaptation, and technology transfer.
14th December 2010 Catch
Crop
Paul Smith, and colleagues at the Millennium Seed Bank, have revealed
plans to collect and store seed stocks of wild relatives of key
food crops such as rice, wheat and potatoes.
24th November 2010 Yvo's
Six
Yvo de Boer, former executive secretary of the UNFCCC, has outlined
the six areas in which he believes the upcoming negotiations in
Cancun can make real progrees.
24th November 2010 Recessionary
Dip
Pierre Friedlingstein at Exeter University UK, and colleagues,
have reported that global greenhouse gas emissions from fossil
fuel burning fell by only 1.3 percent in 2009.
15th November 2010 Hot
Housing
Carlos Jaramillo and colleagues at the Smithsonian Institute in
Panama have suggested that elevated temperature and carbon dioxide
concentrations boosted diversity in ancient rainforests.
15th November 2010 Sand
Timer
Arjan Reesink and colleagues at the University of Birmingham,
UK, are examining gravel and sand deposits laid down by ancient
rivers to improve understanding of past climates.
10th October 2010 Ecosystem
Service
Chris Kirby and colleagues at the University of East Anglia, UK,
have reported that ecotourism can provide a sufficient financial
incentive to drive down deforestation rates.
10th October 2010 Double
Jeopardy
Andrew Bauman and colleagues at the United Nations University
have highlighted the threat posed to coral reefs by large algal
blooms. This threat is in addition to that of high temperatures.
10th October 2010 Tianjin
Talks
UN climate talks in Tianjin, China have ended without a breakthrough.
However, there remains hope that a deal to provide $100bn for
adaptation can still be made in Cancun in December.
23rd September 2010 Ocean
Anomaly
Dave Thompson and colleagues at Colorado State University have
found that the rapid drop in ocean temperatures 40 years ago cannot
be explained by aerosol pollution.
23rd September 2010 Lofty
Ambition
Meinrat Andrea and colleagues from Germany and Brazil are constructing
a 320 metre tower in the Amazon rainforest with the aim of measuring
large scale greenhouse gas fluxes.
7th September 2010 War
and Peace
Halvard Buhaug, of the Peace Research Institute Oslo in Norway,
has cast doubt on the link between climate change and armed conflict
in Africa. Political causes are instead highlighted.
7th September 2010 Receding
Waistline
David Barnes, and colleagues at the British Antarctic Survey,
have suggested that the last collapse of the West Antarctic Ice
Sheet (WAIS) may have been as little as 125,000 years ago.
30th August 2010 IPCC
Review
The Inter-Academy Council is set to release the findings of its
review into the processes and procedures of the United Nation's
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
24th August 2010 Sea
Level Lag
John Moore and colleagues at Beijing Normal University have warned
that geoengineering of the climate through solar radiation management
may fail to address sea level rise.
24th August 2010 Sunk
Sink
Maosheng Zhao and Steve Running of the University of Montana have
suggested that the terrestrial carbon sink has faltered over the
last decade. Regional droughts are suggested as a cause.
24th August 2010 Climate
of Change
The Australian electorate has pushed climate change up the political
agenda as a result of the divided vote in Australia's recent national
elections. The Greens achieved 11 percent of the vote.
17th August 2010 Biochar
Boon
Johannes Lehmann of Cornell University, and colleagues, have estimated
the maximum amount of climate change mitigation achievable using
biochar to be 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon per year.
14th July 2010 Typhoon
Sink
James Liu at National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan, and colleagues,
has highlighted the key role played by typhoons in delivering
terrestrial carbon to the deep ocean.
5th July 2010 Solar
Boost
US President, Barack Obama, has announced almost $2 billion in
loans to support the development of solar energy generation in
the US. The world's largest solar plant is planned for Arizona.
5th July 2010 Climate
Science and Trust
Jeff Tollefson, writing for Nature, has examined the current level
of public trust in climate science and the ways in which climate
scientists might better communicate their findings.
5th July 2010 Dutch
Verdict
The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency's inquiry into
the work of the IPCC has found no errors that undermine the main
conclusions of the Panel, but recommends more transparency.
18th June 2010 Greenhouse
Feedbacks
Timothy Herbert and colleagues at Brown University in Rhode Island,
US, have suggested that changes in CO2 concentration
may explain global climate patterns dating back 2.7 million years.
18th June 2010 IPCC
Review
Robert Watson, former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change (IPCC), has said that a code of conduct should
be developed and adopted by the IPCC.
17th June 2010 Mount
Albedo
Eduardo Gold, with funding from the World Bank, is attempting
to increase the albedo of Chalon Sombrero in Peru in order to
lower temperatures at the peak and reduce glacial melt.
17th June 2010 Iron
Rich Diet
Trish Lavery and colleagues at Flinders University, Australia,
have suggested that the iron excreted in sperm whale faeces acts
to promote algal growth and carbon sequestration.
9th June 2010 Frying
Pan and Fire
Luiz Arago, of the University of Exeter, UK, and colleagues have
reported an increase in the number of fires in areas of Amazonian
rainforest where deforestation has decreased.
6th June 2010 Alpine
Attribution
Matthias Huss and colleagues at the University of Friborg, Switzerland,
have said that glacial retreat in the Alps can be attributed to
a combination of natural and human-induced climate change.
6th June 2010 Glass
Half Empty
The European Environment Agency has calculated that the European
Union is now more than half way towards achieving its aim of a
20 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
6th June 2010 Everest
Melt
Nepalese sherpas who regularly climb Mount Everest have reported
an increase in the rate of snow and ice melt that is exposing
more bare rock and making climbng more dangerous.
31st May 2010 Dirt
and Climate
Jan Beck and Andrea Sieber of the University of Basel in Switzerland
have described a strong relationship between a nation's soil and
climate and its level of prosperity.
31st May 2010 Royal
Message
The UK's Royal Society is to review its public messages on climate
change in response to a complaint from 43 of its Fellows that
the statements over-simplify the underlying science.
31st May 2010 Methane
and Climate Change
Dave Reay, of Edinburgh University, Pete Smith of Aberdeen University,
and Andre van Amstel of Wageningen University have edited a new
book on methane and climate.
17th May 2010 Lizard
Threat
Barry Sinervo and colleagues at the University of California in
Santa Cruz have warned that climate change could make 20 percent
of the world's lizard species extinct by 2080.
17th May 2010 Nile
Tensions
Egypt and the Sudan have stated that they are strongly opposed
to a new agreement designed to give greater access to water from
the Nile to upriver nations such as Ethiopia.
4th May 2010 Plant
Reprieve
Andy McLeod, and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh, UK,
have reported that methane emissions from vegetation are very
minor compared to carbon uptake and storage.
4th May 2010 Split
Cap
Uganda's Wildlife Authority have said that the ice cap on the
country's highest peak has split as a result of global warming.
Its extent has fallen from six to less than one square kilometres.
4th May 2010 No
Deal Down Under
The Australian government has been forced to put plans for a national
greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme on hold until 2013. The
scheme was twice rejected by the Senate.
12th April 2010 Solar
Sideshow
Georg Feulner and colleagues at the Postdam Institute in Germany
have reported that any weakening of solar activity in coming decades
will moderately offset projected warming.
12th April 2010 Deal
Breakers
Yvo de Boer, speaking at the first UN climate change talks since
COP-15 in Copenhagen, has rated the chances of reaching a binding
agreement by the end of 2010 as slim.
12th April 2010 Higher
Stakes
Stefan Rahmstorf has assessed the latest thinking on sea level
rise during the 21st century and the extent to which the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change may have underestimated it.
31st March 2010 Gulf
Streaming
Josh Willis and colleagues at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in California have said there is no evidence that the Gulf stream
has slowed down between 2002 and 2009.
31st March 2010 Chinese
Revolutions
Phyllis Cuttino and colleagues at the Pew Charitable Trusts have
reported that China has become the world leader in renewable energy
investment, with $34bn of investments in 2009.
7th March 2010 Deeper
Footprint
Peter Stott and colleagues at the UK Met Office have said that
the evidence for anthropogenic climate change is now stronger
than when the IPCC published its 4th assessment report.
27th February 2010 Cetacean
Sink
Andrew Pershing, and colleagues at the Gulf of Maine Research
Institute in the US, have calculated that a century of whaling
has released more than 100 million tonnes of carbon.
12th February 2010 Climategate
Sir Muir Russell and his climate change email review team have
begun their inquiry into the leaked emails from the Climatic Research
Unit at the University of East Anglia, UK.
12th February 2010 Coiled
Spring
Stephen Thackeray, and colleagues at the Centre for Hydrology
and Ecology in the UK, have suggested that the increasingly early
start to spring is disrupting natural food chains.
25th January 2010 End
of Raj?
Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, will not resign over the errors on Himalayan glacier loss
rates contained in the Fourth Assessment Report.
15th January 2010 Space
Age Methane
Paul Palmer and colleagues at the University of Edinburgh, UK,
have used satellite data to demonstrate the large-scale controls
of global methane production and emission.