Plant Carbon sequestration capacity in a high CO2 world overestimated

With climate change stimulating plant growth due to elevated CO2 concentrations climate models calculated this would also stimulate uptake and sequestration of carbon. But a new long term (13 year) study looking at plant biomass growth in a high CO2 environment with Nitrogen nutrients indicates that plants also require enriched soil nitrogen to escalate uptake and sequestration of carbon from elevated CO2. Soil nitrogen just cannot be increased on a widespread basis.

Related: Rising atmospheric Carbon Dioxide levels threaten crop yields and food security

Guest Post: Calls for climate action as Great Barrier Reef suffers major coral loss

By Charis Palmer, The Conversation

The Great Barrier Reef has lost half its coral cover in the last 27 years, and it could halve again by 2022 say researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
A study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found storm damage drove 48% of the loss, the crown of thorns starfish 42%, and bleaching 10%.

Second chance for Rogue Weathergirl: Still Hot, Still Crazy

Those wonderful people at Deep Rogue Ram have given us more to laugh and think about with the current US Drought, climate change and the US Presidential election.

If you remember Pippa gave us the real weather report a few weeks ago at the start of September highlighting the record reduction in Arctic Sea Ice and unprecedented melting of Greenland ice sheet and thousands of record temperatures broken in North America.

Newcastle residents protest health effects of proposed 4th coal export terminal

Newcastle residents and activists protested the lack of consideration of health and climate change effects in the proposed building of a fourth coal terminal at the port of Newcastle, already the world's largest coal port. A peaceful protest and 'lockon' occurred outside The office of NSW Minister for Planning Brad Hazzard last Thursday who is due to consider the merits of the proposal.

Related: Newcastle’s T4 project puts short-term profit before health | Something in the air: time for independent testing in coal areas | Coal Terminal Action Group

Southern Ocean warming impact on Antarctic Ice Sheet and global sea level rise

Climate change is causing the southern ocean to warm and freshen which will melt ice shelves and glacier tongues affecting glacier discharge and producing Antarctic Ice Sheet mass loss and global sea level rise. A new study shows that small temperature changes of the Southern Ocean can contribute to far-reaching changes on the Antarctic ice sheet that could lead to substantial future sea-level rise.

Related: Waking the giant: Global Warming in the Weddell Sea, West Antarctic Ice Sheet and sea level rise | Attenborough warns of ice shelf destruction in Antarctica | Global Warming in Antarctica: Thwaites and Pine Island Glaciers accelerating, West Antarctic Ice Sheet losing mass

Climate change impact on groundwater and alpine landscape in Switzerland

Prof. Dr Daniel Hunkeler outlines how Groundwater plays a major role for water supply in Switzerland. How does climate change affect different groundwater resources? What are the consequences for water supply?

The glaciers of the European Alpine region are melting and retreating due to climate change posing issues in management of groundwater and the changing alpine landscape. Temperatures are rising more quickly in Switzerland than the global average: by up to 2 °C since 1900 particularly at high elevations, a rate that is roughly three times the global-average 20th century warming.

Related: The World Wildlife Fund summary from the IPCC 4th Assessment report on Climate change impacts in Switzerland

Climate change driving US Drought conditions towards a megadrought?

The widespread and persistent drought in the US during 2011-2012 has expanded according to the US Drought Monitor as reported on Climate Central. Are we starting to see the signs of a megadrought in the US southwest? Are human influences such as climate change contributing to or causing this widespread extreme weather event?

As of 18 September 2012, 64.82 percent of the contiguous U.S. has been declared as suffering from at least moderate drought - a new record. Extreme drought occurs across 20.74 percent, while the most severe category has ravaged 6.26 per cent of the land. And the seasonal outlook provided by NOAA provides little happy news predicting the drought will persist till the end of the year.

The drought is the worst to occurr since the dustbowl years of the 1930s and comes as North America experiences well above normal temperatures over spring and summer breaking many temperature records with the first half of 2012 being the hottest on record for the United States. July 2012 was the hottest month on record for the continental United States. But Australia and a few other places had abnormally cool month so putting the chill on a hot July for a global record.

Global Warming imperils coral reefs: 2 degrees warming is too hot say scientists

Increasing sea surface temperatures are imperilling coral reef ecosystems say scientists. A new scientific paper with extensive modelling reveals that atmospheric warming of 2 degrees celsius is too much for nearly all the world's coral reef ecosystems. They argue that to preserve greater than 10 per cent of coral reefs worldwide would require limiting global warming to below 1.5 °C. This equates to the goal of reducing carbon in the atmosphere to 350ppm, rather than a 2 degree rise or 450ppm that the UN Framwework Convention on Climate Change has adopted as the safe limit at several meetings. Atmospheric concentration of CO2 currently stands at 392.41ppm.

Arctic Summer Sea Ice Extent Minimum record smashed in 2012

Arctic summer sea ice is at a new record low level since satellite measurements began recording data in 1979. The summer minimum is down to about 1.32 million square miles (3.41 million square kilometers), half the average summer ice between 1979 and 2000. The minimum record was last set in 2007 with this year's sea-ice extent being about 18% lower than 2007. Some scientists predict we may see summer sea ice vanish by 2015-16, well ahead of International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2007 Report predictions.

"The polar meltdown shows we're teetering on the brink of climate-change catastrophe," said Shaye Wolf, climate science director at the Center for Biological Diversity's Climate Law Institute. "Arctic sea ice plays a critical role in regulating the planet's climate. As man-made global warming shrinks the ice, our risk of droughts and other extreme weather goes up. We can't wait any longer to cut carbon pollution."

See also: Arctic sea ice Extent drops to lowest on record and still shrinking | Arctic warming at more than double the global warming average | Sea ice volume: Multi-year arctic sea ice reducing dramatically | Radio Ecoshock: ARCTIC MELT DOWN Scientists Speak Out | Climate Code Red: How British government's climate forecasting MET Office gets the Arctic wrong

More than enough wind energy to power our world, coal power is so last century

A new scientific study has found there is wind energy in abundance to power the needs of the world with near zero emission electric power several times over. The world currently utilizes about 18TW (TeraWatts) of power. The study identified that the lower geophysical limits for energy harvested from surface turbines (supported on towers on land and sea) was over 400TW. If turbines could be flown by kites to capture the more reliable high altitude winds, more than 1,800TW of power could potentially be extracted throughout the atmosphere.