Reduce methane to buy time on reducing CO2 argues climate scientist

Tackling reduction of carbon dioxide pollution is proving difficult to do, although much of this is political intransigence. Peter Cox Professor of Climate System Dynamics and leader of the inter-disciplinary "Climate Change and Sustainable Futures" activity at the University of Exeter, suggests we should come at the problem from a different angle - focusing at first in reducing methane emissions which would allow a greater CO2 budget to keep within. Buying us some time.

"It looks extremely unlikely that we can stop global warming at 2 °C just by reducing CO2 emissions," he told New Scientist in March 2012. "That probably requires peaking emissions by 2020. But drastic action on methane would make the task much more feasible."

Global CO2 emissions reach record high for 2011 Warns IEA

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has just reported another increase in CO2 emissions for 2011 to a new record high of 31.6 gigatonnes (Gt), an increase of 1.0 Gt on 2010, or 3.2%. Last year the IEA reported a record high of 30.6 Gigatonnes during 2010, with Greenhouse gases increasing 6 per cent, one of the largest annual increases on record.

According to the IEA, global energy-related emissions in 2020 must not be greater than 32.6 Gt to be consistent in limiting warming to 2ºC. We are traveling very close to global greenhouse gas pollution limits. "The new data provide further evidence that the door to a 2°C trajectory is about to close," said IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol. According to the IEA coal accounted for 45% of emissions, oil 35% and natural gas 20%.

Waking the giant: Global Warming in the Weddell Sea, West Antarctic Ice Sheet and sea level rise

Warm ocean currents are projected to melt the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica opening instabilities in the West Antarctic Ice sheet (WAIS) which will impact global sea level rise. Climate change is waking up the sleeping giant of Antarctica.

Significant scientific research has been published in recent weeks on the impact of global warming on changing wind patterns and southern ocean currents and the flow-on impact on Antarctic ice shelves and glaciers. The most recent studies reveal the potential instability of the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in the Weddell Sea area. But the real questions to be asked concern the long term stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) and how rapidly it could collapse raising global sea levels by up to 6 metres.

I highlighted in November 2011 that the Thwaites and Pine Island Glaciers accelerating, West Antarctic Ice Sheet losing mass in the Amundsen Sea area. Now climate researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association studying the opposite side of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) in the Weddell Sea area have discovered a mechanism which will drive warm ocean water towards the coast in the later decades of this century, allowing a higher rate of basal melting - the melting from underneath of ice shelves and glaciers by warmer ocean currents - leading to greater discharge of ice from the icesheet.

Another research team has found a large deep basin, about 20,000 square kilometres in size and up to 2 kilometres deep, underneath the ice sheet in the Weddell Sea area, which makes the ice sheet inherently unstable if pinion points for the ice shelf retreat and warmer water enters the basin.

Seagrass meadows are key carbon sinks for combatting climate change

May 22 is UNESCO's
 International Day for Biological Diversity which focussed strongly on conserving our marine diversity. One of the important marine ecosystems are the seagrass meadows around the coasts of the world. A new global scientific research study just released has shown that seagrass meadows store significantly more carbon than any land based forest. They are very important as carbon sinks. But they are also suffering a major decline due to pollution from agricultural and mining development and chemical runoff, coastal development changing water turbidity upsetting photosynthesis in seagrass, and increasing sea surface temperatures affecting seagrass growth due to global warming.

The new global study of seagrass meadow ecosystems has found that coastal seagrass beds store much more carbon than can be stored in even the most carbon dense forests, such as the temperate native forests of Victoria. Seagrass meadows can store up to 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometre, mostly in the soils below them. In comparison, a typical land forest stores around 30,000 metric tons per square kilometre mostly as wood. It is the first global study to analyze the carbon storage capacity in seagrasses.

Seagrass meadows support a highly level of biodiversity with many fish species using the seagrass during their juvenile period, as well as providing homes for crabs, sea urchin, seahorses shrimp and prawns. Sea tutles, dugongs and manatees depend on seagrass meadows as a primary food source. As Professor Carlos Duarte points out in an article on The Conversation website, Indigenous cultures new the significance and value of seagrass meadows. Conservation and restoration of seagrass ecosystems provides a unique Submarine Carbon Tax Opportunity! Seagrass meadows are intense, but fragile carbon sinks.

More Information: Seagrass Watch | Global Seagrass Monitoring Network

Global Warming intensifying Global Water Cycle by double current climate model projections

New research into ocean salinity levels has revealed a strong global water cycle intensification during the period of 1950 to 2000. The researchers report the rate of change in the global water cycle is double the rate projected by current-generation climate models. The study found "robust evidence of an intensified global water cycle at a rate of about eight per cent per degree of surface warming," said study co-author Dr Durack, a post-doctoral fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US.

Pollution caused global warming hole delayed climate change over eastern United States

Reduction in air pollution from coal fired power stations due to environmental regulations since the 1980s has increased regional global warming in the Central and Eastern United States. Climate scientists from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) found that particulate pollution, particularly from coal fired power stations, caused a global warming hole, or a large cold patch reducing temperatures by up to 1 degree C in the region, particularly lowering maximum temperatures in Summer and Autumn.

New Breakthrough in Photovoltaic solar cell efficiency

Researchers from Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy and the University of Sydney, with Australian Solar Institute support, have achieved a record breaking 40 per cent efficiency in the output from crystalline silicon solar cells. Previously, only up to about 33 per cent of energy could be harvested from normal amorphous crystalline silicon solar cells.

Associate Professor Tim Schmidt from Sydney University's School of Chemistry has been researching improving solar cell efficiency using the upconversion technique, a process which harvests the part of the solar spectrum currently unused by solar cells, and eliminates the need for costly redevelopment of solar cells.

Global Warming threshold for Greenland Ice Sheet collapse reduced to 1.6 degrees C

New research from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Universidad Complutense de Madrid has lowered the best estimate for the irreversible collapse of the Greenland Ice Sheet down to 1.6 °C, making the ice sheet more vulnerable than previously thought to global warming. The previous best estimate was 3.1 °C. As we currently have 0.8 °C of global warming, by the middle of the century we could easily pass this new threshold unleashing an ultimate sea level rise of several metres.

Already we have seen record summer melting in Greenland in 2010, and near record mass loss in 2011. According to NOAA the melt season in 2011 lasted up to 30 days longer than average and it affected 31 percent of the ice sheet surface, making 2011 one of just three years since 1979 where melt area exceeded 30 percent. Polar regions are warming much faster and to a greater degree than any other latitude on earth.

Global Warming means 20 Metre sea level rise in the pipeline say scientists

Scientists studying the geological record have determined that at slightly above current temperatures we are about 20 metres below what the sea level equilibrium should be. Sea levels are increasing and forecast to rise at least a metre this century (although there is a low probability they could be higher than this), much of the change in sea level will occur over several hundred or thousands of years.

Scientists looking at the Pliocene period from 2.7 to 3.2 million years ago, the last time temperatures were at a similar range of 2 degrees C above average, estimated peak sea level was 22 ± 10 m higher than modern levels (extreme likelihood). This rise in sea level would require the equivalent of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets disintegrating, and some volume loss from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. We are already seeing substantial mass loss from Greenland and West Antarctic Ice sheets.

Related: Scientists Estimate Sea level Rise for next 500 years | Sea Level Rise and Australia | Video Interview - The risks of Sea Level Change - Dr Peter Ward

Carnaby's Cockatoo suffers 37 per cent population decline in one year

Flocks of Carnaby's Black Cockatoo are iconic sights for the people of Perth, the Swan River Region and the forests of the South west. But comparing two population surveys in 2010 and 2011 showed a 37 percent decline in numbers across the Swan river region. That is a 37 per cent decline in one year.

According to Statistical modelling based on the 2011 Great Cocky Count the population of Carnaby’s cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus latirostris) in the Swan Region was between 5200 and 8600 birds. A year earlier it was estimated that the population was 8000 to 10,000.

Related: Scientific American - Endangered Australian Cockatoo Loses One Third of Population in Just 1 Year | Biodiversity crisis: Habitat loss and climate change causing 6th mass extinction