Review of Pew Charitable Trust Reports: Climate Change 101

http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-basics/climate_change_101?utm_source=Pew+Center+on+Global+Climate+Change+newsletter+list&utm_campaign=9e30f90c8b-Pew_Center_February_2011_newsletter&utm_medium=email

By Sara Avrams

Climate Change 101 is a series of 10 brief reports on aspects of the threats posed by global climate change. Although each of the 10 chapters stands on its own merits, and can be downloaded individually, I recommend downloading the whole document. The reader will find it a gripping read. Each chapter has an overview that neatly and clearly gives the reader a taste of what is to come. The forecasts are fast, furious and brutally honest.

Science and Impacts gives a gripping view of the effects of climate change from the scientist’s point of view. The science is easy to understand. Impacts are made in layman’s English with graphic aids, such as pictures, charts and graphs.

Adaptations logically explains how we may need to adapt as our world changes around us. This chapter addresses planning from a number of perspectives ranging from personal to global. The focus is positive and proactive.

Clearly, we got ourselves into this dilemma and we must get ourselves out of it. Technology and cooperation are the keys. Technological Solutions discusses the hardware of many available solutions; laying out those choices with beautiful clarity and simplicity.

The next several chapters: Business Solutions, International Action, Federal Action, State Action, and Local Action focus on the cooperative and governmental issues necessary to address the resolution and remediation of global climate change. These chapters focus on a very complex set of facts and information in a way that is easy to grasp.

I have only two criticisms of these reports. In one case, a comment was made that Texas emits twice the amount of GHGs as Spain. I immediately wondered, “How large is Texas compared to Spain?” (I looked it up. Texas is 269,000 sq. miles with a population of 25 million where Spain is 195,000 sq. miles with a population 45 million.) This comparison would have made for an interesting discussion.

Another comment was made that the earth’s temperature was rising by 1.5 degrees. It would be helpful to explain how this number would affect the earth.

In summary, this is a fascinating booklet on global climate change suited for the general population. A good read for anyone interested in understanding facts and hearing the story told from a positive hopeful perspective.

Frost Byte, Volume 5, Issue 4

Posted on January 29, 2008 by rgbrocs

Last week Allaina attended the AMS/ASLI annual conference in New Orleans. As you might imagine, much of the AMS talk was about hurricanes. The ASLI conference was not so focused on the weather but more about the data about the weather and the role of libraries and data centers in managing and disseminating the data. The usual suspects were in attendance, librarians and data managers from Alaska, UCAR, NOAA, NASA, and other government associations and universities.

The Wednesday keynote address was “Divine Wind: the History and Science of Hurricanes” by Kerry Emmanuel. It was standing room only for his talk, which focused on historical aspects of hurricanes and also a bit of data collection. On Thursday, Allaina was part of a six person panel discussion titled “Discovery, Access, Preservation: Libraries’ Roles in Data Services.” It may have been more appropriate for a USO representative to have been a speaker, but given the 7 minute speaking time, there wasn’t much time to say all that we do at NSIDC.

In the Exhibit Hall, Allaina and Florence met Dr. Richard Crouthamel retired from NOAA and now executive director of the non-profit International Environmental Data Rescue Organization (IEDRO). He was wearing a t-shirt made by his granddaughter that said “Eat. Sleep. Rescue data.” Unfortunately, he didn’t have any for sale. IEDRO’s mission is to assist the scientific and educational communities by: locating and rescuing weather and other environmental data stored on perishable media; digitizing historical environmental data; ensuring the digitized data is available for operational and research applications to its host country as well as the international community of scientists.

Richard (Armstrong) and Allaina have been in contact with Dr. Crouthamel regarding a collection of about 1,000 historic glacier photographs. The collection of glass plates is currently stored at The Regional Museum in Maggiorino Borgatello, Puntas Arenas, Chile. He is attempting to negotiate the transfer of these images to NSIDC.

There are a couple of BAMS meeting issues, as well as IEDRO newsletters, in the library for anyone who might be interested.

Source

http://rgbrocs.wordpress.com/2008/01/29/frost-byte-volume-5-issue-4/

European Science Foundation European Cooperation in Science and Technology High-Level Research Conference

13-17 December 2010

Selwyn College, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Understanding the frequency and magnitude of extreme environmental events and their impacts is a critical aspect of climate prediction. This conference aims to bring together an inter-disciplinary group including statisticians, climate modellers, meteorologists, and other environmental scientists to focus on extreme events and the uncertainties inherent in their understanding.

To learn more visit:

http://www.esf.org/index.php?id=7048