Political Ecology

“We have made a theoretical modelling of two different scenarios that might trigger climate change. We wanted to investigate if it could be determined whether there was an external factor which caused the climate change or whether the shift was due to an accumulation of small, chaotic fluctuations”, explains Peter Ditlevsen, a climate researcher at [...]

Trend analysis of the multi-data set series (including an annually varying estimate of error) reveals that May and June SCE (Snow Cover Extent) have decreased 14% and 46%, respectively, over the pan-Arctic region over the 1967–2008 period in response to earlier snow melt. These results are confirmed with in situ data from Canada, Alaska and [...]

Various studies have documented the effects of modern-day irrigation on regional and global climate, but none, to date, have considered the time-varying impact of steadily increasing irrigation rates on climate during the 20th century. We investigate the impacts of observed irrigation changes over this century with two ensemble simulations using an atmosphere general circulation model. [...]

Radiocarbon in the atmosphere is regulated largely by ocean circulation, which controls the sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the deep sea through atmosphere–ocean carbon exchange. During the last glaciation, lower atmospheric CO2 levels were accompanied by increased atmospheric radiocarbon concentrations that have been attributed to greater storage of CO2 in a poorly ventilated abyssal [...]

Studies show that a changing climate could have a significant impact on the deterioration of stone and brick buildings.Building deterioration is often caused by water from the ground rising up through the stone. As water evaporates, salts are left behind which crystallise at the surface. Damage can also be caused by the physical impact of [...]

This paper examines changes in the surface area of glaciers in the North and South Chuya Ridges, Altai Mountains in 1952–2004 and their links with regional climatic variations. The glacier surface areas for 2004 were derived from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) imagery. Data from the World Glacier Inventory (WGI) dating [...]

Reducing uncertainty in climate projections can involve giving less credence to Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models (AOGCMs) for which the simulated future climate is judged to be unreliable. Reliability is commonly assessed by comparing AOGCM output with observations. A desirable property of any AOGCM skill score is that resulting AOGCM-performance rankings should show some consistency when [...]