Climate Change Impacts Inventory

Warming in Michigan between 1980 and the present has been about 2 degrees Fahrenheit, concentrated in warmer winters and nights. Spring warming is earlier. That’s why our plant-growing zone has moved from a cooler 5 to a warmer 6.

As the climate warms, vineyards are multiplying and wine-tasting has joined beaches as a West Michigan tourist attraction.

The 3-mile- (4,884-meter-) high glacier was pounded by rain every afternoon during the team's 13-day trip, something the American scientist has never encountered in three decades of drilling ice cores. He lay awake at night listening to the water gushing beneath him. By the time they were ready to head home, ice around their sheltered campsite had melted a staggering 12 inches (30 centimeters). "These glaciers are dying," said Thompson, one of the world's most accomplished glaciologists. "Before I was thinking they had a few decades, but now I'd say we're looking at years."

The mountain has lost about 80 percent of its ice since 1936 - two-thirds of that since the last scientific expedition in the early 1970s. Thompson says he thinks temperatures are rising twice as fast in high altitudes as at the earth's surface, which, if true, could have broad implications on people who depend on glaciers for water during the dry season, such as in the Himalayas.

Geoffrey Hope, a professor at Australian National University who took part in the 1971 expedition to Puncak Jaya, noted that Papua has the wettest mountain region in the world, so high precipitation levels didn't come as a great surprise. Still, his own experience was markedly different. "The roof of our marque tent fell in on many evenings due to the weight of the snow," he recalled, "and all water coming from the glacier would freeze by 8 p.m. each night."

"Our findings indicate that CO2 levels of approximately 400 parts per million are sufficient to produce mean annual temperatures in the High Arctic of approximately 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees F)," author Ashley Ballantyne said in a release. "As temperatures approach 0 degrees Celsius, it becomes exceedingly difficult to maintain permanent sea and glacial ice in the Arctic. Thus current levels of CO2 in the atmosphere of approximately 390 parts per million may be approaching a tipping point for irreversible ice-free conditions in the Arctic."

in a biological sense butterflies are heavy hitters when it comes to protecting species threatened by climate change.As the world warmed, a butterfly called Edith's checkerspot was the first organism to show a documented range shift,

Edith's checkerspot has been dying out in northern Mexico and doing well in Canada

Parmesan said Tuesday during a break in the conference. It's also dying out at lower elevations and flourishing in the Sierra Nevada's highest elevations.

For the first time in more than 65 years, dengue has returned the continental United States, according to an advisory the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued in late May.

The upsurge is not unexpected. Experts say more than half the world's population will be at risk by 2085 because of greater urbanization, global travel and climate change.

The risk is set to increase. A report in the medical journal Lancet, which looked at the impact of climate change on the global distribution of dengue fever, found that nearly 5 billion to 6 billion people will be living in land suitable for transmission by 2085.

Bird migration has also been critically affected by climate change in the last few years. Birds rely on signals from the sun to start their journey back North in the early spring. Unfortunately, the sustenance they rely on to fuel their journey is no longer appearing in conjunction with their flight. Because temperatures have been rising successively, caterpillar larvae have been appearing earlier in the first months of spring: by the time birds make their migration, many of these critical sources of protein and fat have already flown away--either as butterflies or moths. Because birds rely on a fixed signal to begin their journey, it is virtually impossible for them to coordinate their voyage with their food source. A nearly 50% decline in many bird species has been noted in the last few years. Indeed, a 90% decline in populations of Pied Flycatchers in the Netherlands has been attributed to these alternating cues and their consequences.

Add this one to the year’s lengthening list of natural disasters — a bumper crop of poison ivy. It’s flourishing this summer, which, The Wall Street Journal says, “is shaping up to be one of its most virulent and unpredictable seasons.”

Long term, it seems that poison ivy responds positively to global warming, especially the increase in carbon dioxide, which produces bigger and more irritating plants.

SIGHTINGS OF exotic snake pipefish, swarms of jellyfish and an “unprecedented” rise in sea surface temperatures indicate climate change is having a significant effect on Ireland’s marine ecosystems, according to a new report.Swarms of jellyfish, increased wave heights off the southwest coast and a greater variety of warm-water species in Irish waters have also been recorded by the authors of the report published today by the Marine Institute.

The authors noted that increases of sea surface temperature – at a rate of 0.6 degrees a decade – have been recorded since 1994. This is “unprecedented” in the past 150 years, the Marine Institute says.This temperature rise has been linked to an increase in microscopic plants and animals, along with species of jellyfish. The institute says increased numbers of most warm-water fish species have been observed in Irish waters.

NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER

800 PM PDT THU JUN 24 2010

CELIA IS TIED FOR THE STRONGEST EASTERN PACIFIC HURRICANE ON RECORD IN JUNE...WITH AVA OF 1973.

Space buffs know that Earth orbit is littered with junk, including defunct satellites, spent rocket boosters, and other random debris--about 11,500 objects bigger than 4 inches across

every one of these speeding bits of hardware could potentially damage, or even smash up a working satellite. The latter could create a lot more debris, potentially triggering something called the Kessler Syndrome, in which fragments of a smashed satellite go on to smash more satellites, creating fragments that go on to smash more...and so on.

turns out that if you warm the lower atmosphere by trapping infrared radiation--the essence of the greenhouse effect--the upper atmosphere should actually get cooler.

"June is going to be a new record low (for sea ice extent)," said Julienne Stroeve of the National Snow and Ice Data Center. The rate ice has been receding is also faster than any other June on record, she said, as was May.

Having just completed the warmest spring on record, Washington, DC, and other cities in the eastern United States are enduring a record-breaking heat wave that is consistent with climate change. Last week’s temperatures in Washington D.C. broke a century-old record and forecasters expect this month to be the hottest June on record for the area. These patterns fit the long-term trends of more frequent heat waves driven by climate change

Characteristics of the current heat wave in the Washington, DC area include record daytime highs, record high overnight lows, and the long string of days above 90 degrees, all of which are consistent with the trends in the U.S. driven by climate change. The back-to-back heat waves experienced in Philadelphia this June also reflect the long-term global warming trend, as do the record-breaking average temperatures witnessed this past spring in Washington D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

"People ask, 'Are you seeing any effects of climate change?' I would argue yes," said Mauger. "We're warmer now than in the past for water temperature. ... The stress in the watershed is enough it could have an impact on the productivity of the river system."

"We're warmer now than in the past for water temperature. ... The stress in the watershed is enough it could have an impact on the productivity of the river system."

Almost 50 streams are now being monitored.

We, at the Rubber Board, did a study using the data of the last fifty years and found that warm nights are increasing steadily. This has had an impact. The productivity of rubber trees in India which stood at 1,903 kg per hectare per year in 2008 was down to 1,796 kg per hectare per year in 2009. Climate change is a significant factor for this fall in productivity though other factors also might have contributed.

“Over the last 30 years, Asia has been the continent with the largest increase in frequency of weather-related disasters. Loss-relevant events have tripled in number which presents new challenges for all exposed economies.”

Alluding to the impact of climate change and its impact, Munich Re said that over the last century, the Asian continent has seen the largest temperature increase.

With the observance of the Dengue Awareness Month in June, the Department of Health reported increase in dengue cases in the region due to climate change. DOH Entomologist Ursula Segundo said that the DOH has recorded a 90 percent increase in the cases of dengue in the Cordillera region compared to the same period last year.

Segundo said that the increase in dengue cases is due to the climate change.

Mosquitoes have traditionally been the scourge of the Tarai but have now gone cosmopolitan and even made it to the freezing cold altitude of the famous Pathibhara temple in Taplejung district.

"I had never seen mosquitoes during my 15-year stint at this temple. It has been a novel experience for me," the priest at the temple, Dilli Ram Acharya, said. google_protectAndRun("ads_core.google_render_ad", google_handleError, google_render_ad);

Acharya said white and grey moths have also appeared in the hilltop

Temperatures of 90 or above have been reported every day this week at Reagan National Airport and on 14 of the first 25 days of the month. With more such days expected Saturday and Sunday, National Weather Service forecasters predict that this month "will likely end up being the warmest June on record."