The most excellent Tumblr of the Sunlight Foundation
Policy stalls as campaign spending by fossil fuel industries and greenhouse gases rise to historic levels.
More: http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2013/whats-wrong-picture-greenhouse-gas-all-time-high/
Some useful numbers on CO2 emissions and climate change. View the rest of the visualization at informationisbeautiful.net.
The New Scientist has launched an interactive map of NASA’s historical temperature record for the whole planet. Find out how temperatures are changing in your backyard.
The official website for the Polar Bear Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission has launched a fabulous webmapping resource enabling users to stay involved and informed regarding the plight of the polar bear.
State of the Climate Global Analysis April 2012
Note: The data presented in this report are preliminary. Ranks and anomalies may change as more complete data are received and processed. Effective November 2011, the GHCN-M version 3.1.0 dataset of monthly mean temperature replaced the GHCN-M version 3 monthly mean temperature dataset. Beginning with the October 2011 Global monthly State of the Climate Report, GHCN-M version 3.1.0 is used for NCDC climate monitoring activities, including calculation of global land surface temperature anomalies and trends.
Who’s Leading The Low-Carbon Economy?
The Climate Institute/GE Low-Carbon Competitiveness Index data visualisation was built by Pitch Interactive using HTML5 Canvas and Processing. To view a fully interactive version, we suggest using a modern browser such as Firefox (1.5+), Chrome, Safari (1.3+), Opera (9+) or Internet Explorer (9+). The data presented is derived from the updated Vivid Economics report, which can be downloaded here.
The Carbon Calculator developed by Vizzuality is an interactive mapping tool that reveals the potential contribution of any selected area in the world to climate change mitigation.
Using the data delivered by CBD Secretariat (Convention on Biological Diversity), LifeWeb (CBD Programme of Work on Protected Areas) and UNEP-WCMC (UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre), the online tool calculates rough estimates of user-selected areas on a wide set of parameters, including: the carbon stored in above and below ground live biomass and soil, the percentage overlap with existing protected areas, the status of forests, the restoration potential inside selected areas, the maximum carbon sequestration potential.
Arctic Tundra is turning greener much sooner due to accelerated global temperatures according to NOAA’s 2011 Arctic Report Card.
cwnl:
Geologists Prepare to Drill Into Ancient Antarctic Lake
A team of British researchers are preparing to dig down through three-kilometer-thick ice to sample a lake under the Antarctic in the hope of finding new species and clues about the future impact of climate change.
A team of engineers with 70 tons of gear are to head for Lake Ellsworth in West Antarctica. The lake has been isolated from the outside world for at least 125,000 years — but it could be as many as a million. It’s about 10km long and two to three kilometers wide.
The team’s mission is to prepare the way for the “deep-field” research mission that will take place in October 2012. They will then use hot water to melt through 3,000 meters of ice in order to reach the lake, which remains liquid due to geothermal heat coming from inside the Earth. This technique has been used before in Antarctic experiments, but never this deep. The hot-water drill will need to operate continuously for three days to create a 36cm wide borehole through the ice.
Engineer Andy Tait, from British Antarctic Survey, explains: “The design of the hot water drill is very straightforward — very similar to the hot water you might use on a jet spray to clean a car. The nozzle delivers water at 2,000 psi and 90C, which is needed to melt the ice to create the hole.”
Global Warming Effects Around the World
1908 World Temperature Chart
Climatologists figuring out which data makes their models better
In order to improve long-term predictions of global climate change, we need more information about the current and changing environment. Unfortunately, in the current era of government budget problems, expensive satellite climate studies are being cut, so it is important to identify the measurements we need the most, choosing among things like air temperature, pressure, humidity, radiance at various wavelengths, radiation transfer to and from the surface, etc.
Cal-Adapt: Exploring California’s Climate Change Predictions
Cal-Adapt, developed by UC Berkeley’s Geospatial Innovation Facility with funding from the Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) program, provides the tools and data for researchers, decision makers, and the general public, to better understand the risks posed by climate change
