Global warming research becomes a major scientific industry in fields ranging from atmospheric physics to biology. Experts are increasingly convinced CO2 from burning fossil fuels is at least partly responsible for the marked warming of recent years. Almost every climate model says warming accelerates. The next decade could bring the same amount of warming as the 1900s. Will global warming bring fewer fish and icebergs? More rain? A damper New York City?
* Rainier California winters. Average temperatures will rise 2 - 7 degrees F over the 2000s, especially bad for California if sea level rises 1 - 3 feet. Heavier rain and higher seas would increase coastal damage during storms like El Nino.
* Global warming could threaten Pacific ecosystems, especially fish benefiting West Coast economy. Data shows big marine ecosystem changes from tropics to poles. Records since 1992 show a precipitous salmon decline. They're smaller and thinner.
* Absence of icebergs in Grand Banks shipping lanes off Newfoundland maybe early warning of global warming.
* New York City will suffer repeated flooding in the 2000s as global warming raises sea level, soaking subways and turning parts of Brooklyn into wetlands.
Global warming seems unreal in Northern California, shivering through chillier summers. Its coast will likely remain cool in summer thanks to cold Pacific currents. Cold water is associated with La Nina following warm-water El Nino of winter 1997-98. Short-term cooling can't obscure long-term signals: It's getting warmer. New global warming projections indicate it worse than originally foreseen. Scientists expecting an average planetary temperature rise of 1.4 - 6.3 degrees F over the 2000s now look at a 2.3 - 7.2 degree rise. That 1-degree difference might seem slight. It equals the entire amount of rise in average global temperature over the 1900s. Climate projections worsen partly from increased success in controlling sulfur dioxide. While CO2 warms the atmosphere SO2 cools it. Until recently, experts hoped SO2 would counterbalance global warming. Hope fades as nations establish tighter controls on SO2 emissions. Slightly higher rates of warming and related sea level rise are expected. 2000s temperature and sea level rise might occur up to 7 times that of the 1900s.
California has increased winter precipitation. When the world gets warmer, oceans evaporate more moisture and the atmosphere holds more moisture. It's got to come out somewhere. Climate models indicate California is one of those places. Computer models indicate high-altitude cooling accompanying lower atmosphere global warming. As upper air cools, noctilucent clouds common in polar latitudes appear farther south. The wispy, silver-blue clouds, composed of tiny ice crystals, resemble cirrus clouds but are far higher, 50 miles up. A noctilucent cloud drifted over Boulder, farthest south such a cloud was recorded. Southerly drifting noctilucent clouds, miners' canaries of global warming, signal bad times ahead with dramatic upper atmospheric cooling effects far greater than predicted. National response to global warming remains sluggish and divided. Congress ignores scientists' warnings. Climatologists agree that global warming is real and could greatly disrupt society. For too long, a vocal minority denying climate change has had Congress' ear.
Paleoclimatologists exploit everything from antarctic ice to ancient pollen to determine Earth's average temperature fluctuation over centuries. Beliefs that climate changes slowly change profoundly on examining polar ice. Its chemistry shows prehistoric climate repeatedly underwent rapid changes, sometimes in less than a decade. Climate could change significantly in one lifetime. Since the Industrial Revolution began the amount of atmospheric CO2 rose markedly as has Earth's average temperature. Scientists blame the former for the latter. Human influence on climate will accelerate in the future. In theory power plant CO2 could be collected, liquefied and dumped on the ocean floor, remaining indefinitely in eternal darkness, prevented from escaping to the surface by crushing pressures of overlying water. Would it work? A beaker of liquefied CO2 was lowered 2 miles to the Pacific floor. Observed by remote camera, slushy ice formed in the bottom of the beaker. CO2 blobs spilled onto the seafloor, rolling out of camera range. Might CO2 harm undersea ecosystems? A passing fish thought of eating a CO2 blob, sniffed it and became dizzy.
Global warming suspected in slow collapse of Antarctic sheet
The massive West Antarctic ice sheet may melt down completely in a process triggered thousands of years ago, not from global warming. Increasingly documented melting and recent Antarctic icebergs increases concerns that manmade climate change could damage Antarctic ice. Its future maybe was predetermined when the grounding line, the boundary between floating ice and ice thick enough to reach the sea floor, retreat was triggered early Holocene 10,000 years ago. The line receded 800 miles since the last ice age, withdrawing an average 400 feet a year the past 7,600 years. Melting rates since early Holocene compare to today's rate. Collapse appears part of an ongoing natural cycle maybe caused by rising sea level initiated by melting Northern Hemisphere ice sheets at the end of the last ice age. Continued shrinking of the ice sheet, perhaps even complete disintegration, could well be inevitable. The ice sheet's disappearance is of concern because of estimates that its complete melting could raise sea level 15 - 20 feet, swamping low-lying coastal communities. Current melting rates will take it 7,000 years.
Storms have significant wind and precipitation. Otherwise it's a weak front or weak weather system. A storm is defined as any disturbed state of the atmosphere, especially affecting Earth's surface, implying inclement and possibly destructive weather. A storm is a transient occurance identified by its most destructive or spectacular aspect(s). In marine forecasting "storm" does have a precise definition of wind over 55 MPH or seas of 29 - 41 feet.