Data Rescue Archive

  • A scientist from the University of Arizona boring a tree ring sample.

    Tree Rings: A Type of Weather Data

    By Penny Paugh Trees grow on every continent except Antarctica, and the rings they contain embody a record of climate change going back thousands of years.  Each ring represents a single year’s growth, so not only can a ring count tell us how old a...

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  • Map of Rwanda. Image reproduced from HistorySpeaks.org.uk

    Rwandan Drought; Ongoing Climate Concerns

    by Aura Lawson La Niña has persisted longer than expected this year, and with it comes agricultural uncertainty for many countries across the globe. Rwanda is no exception. Anthony Twahirwa, head of Rwanda’s Meteorological Center, explains that their forecasting agency expected decreased rainfall as a...

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  • An example of a simple report on scenarios of global warming, produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Image reproduced from NewScientist.

    Isolating Climate Change Constraints

    By Penny Paugh There are many factors that affect the global temperature of the planet, including the rise and fall of greenhouse gases, solar activity, light-scattering atmospheric pollutants, heat transfer among the land, sea, and air, and the presence or absence of forests to process...

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  • An example cross-section of a tree trunk that provides valuable insight into historical weather. Image reproduced from Maricopa.edu.

    Could Climate Change Have Contributed to the Fall of Rome?

    By Penny Paugh One form of environmental data, tree rings, has provided evidence of a climate shift that, perhaps not coincidentally, occurred from 250 to 550 A.D., a period that coincides with the fall of the Roman Empire. From ancient wood found in medieval castles...

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  • Agriculture suffers when either the long rains or the short rains fail to materialize in a given year, but especially when they both fail to materialize. Image reproduced from USAID.gov.

    African Drought and Data Rescue

    Drought in Africa has been a destructive force to life and property since the beginning of recorded time. Most recently, East Africa suffered a severe drought in 2010 that persisted nearly the entire year. However, one good thing that came out of this catastrophic drought...

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  • 6 reasons collage 2

    Ways You Can Help Climate Change Research thru Social Networking

    In these days of budget cuts and economic hardship, it is imperative that we recognize that if we do not understand climate change, we will never have prosperous days. We would very much appreciate your help by: Following the International Environmental Data Rescue Organization (IEDRO)...

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  • Snow storm

    The Cost of Natural Disasters

    By Gavin Roy The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released their annual December report on the past year’s natural disasters in the United States. The sum of the damage in 2011 cost American taxpayers $52 billion. Disasters listed ranged from the Groundhog’s Day blizzard...

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  • old thermometer

    South America Data Rated as Second Highest Priority Climate Data

    by Gavin Roy A group led by PAGES (Past Global Changes) has ranked human weather observations in South America as the second-highest priority climate data that must be collected, collated, and integrated to understand South America’s climate. Their highest-ranked priority is tree-ring records, with ice-core...

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  • ACRE w shadow

    ACRE Mentioned in AMS Bulletin

    The international Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth (ACRE) initiative both undertakes and facilitates the recovery of historical instrumental surface terrestrial and marine global weather observations to underpin 3D weather reconstructions (reanalyses) spanning the last 200-250 years for climate applications and impacts needs worldwide.  All...

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  • ice cores

    Climate Change Research: The Study of Ice Cores

    Ice cores, drilled from the polar ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland most commonly, but also from places as diverse as Africa, Bolivia, China, Peru, Russia and even the United States are the most accurate means to proving a window into the paleoclimate record in...

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