Humans 'very likely' making earth warmer

NF Reporter · 02-01-2007, 09:19 AM

AP - Officials from 113 countries agreed Thursday that a much-awaited international report will say that global warming was "very likely" caused by human activity, delegates to a climate change conference said. Dozens of scientists and bureaucrats are editing the new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in closed-door meetings in Paris. Their report, which must be unanimously approved, is to be released Friday.

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waltky · 10-11-2007, 07:27 PM

Global warming increasing humidity...

Rising Humidity May Make Global Warming Worse
Thursday, October 11, 2007 WASHINGTON — With global warming, the world isn't just getting hotter — it's getting stickier, due to humidity. And people are to blame, according to a study based on computer models published Thursday.

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The amount of moisture in the air near Earth's surface rose 2.2 percent in less than three decades, the researchers report in a study appearing in the journal Nature. "This humidity change is an important contribution to heat stress in humans as a result of global warming," said Nathan Gillett of the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom, a co-author of the study. Gillett studied changes in specific humidity, which is a measurement of total moisture in the air, between 1973-2002.

Higher humidity can be dangerous to people because it makes the body less efficient at cooling itself, said University of Miami health and climate researcher Laurence Kalkstein. He was not connected with the research. Humidity increased over most of the globe, including the eastern United States, said study co-author Katharine Willett, a climate researcher at Yale University. However, a few regions, including the U.S. West, South Africa and parts of Australia were drier. The finding isn't surprising to climate scientists. Physics dictates that warmer air can hold more moisture. But Gillett's study shows that the increase in humidity already is significant and can be attributed to gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

To show that this is man-made, Gillett ran computer models to simulate past climate conditions and studied what would happen to humidity if there were no man-made greenhouse gases. It didn't match reality. He looked at what would happen from just man-made greenhouse gases. That didn't match either. Then he looked at the combination of natural conditions and greenhouse gases. The results were nearly identical to the year-by-year increases in humidity. Gillett's study followed another last month that used the same technique to show that moisture above the world's oceans increased and that it bore the "fingerprint" of being caused by man-made global warming.

More FOXNews.com - Rising Humidity May Make Global Warming Worse - Science News | Current Articles

waltky · 12-03-2007, 06:46 AM

An anomaly?...

Philippines Recorded Coldest Temperature
December 2, 2007 - Residents in the Philippines were advised its now time to take out those sweaters and thick blankets as the north winds have finally arrived bringing colder temperatures.

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The Philippine Atmospheric and Astronomical Services Administration on Sunday announced Metro Manila registered a record-low temperature on Saturday morning to as low as 19 degrees celcius.

Leny Ruiz, Pagasa weather specialist, said the public must prepare for colder weather in the coming days as Christmas season arrives.

Ruiz said, "We recorded a temperature of 19 degrees Celcius, that's the coldest so far. But we expect the weather to get cold in the next few days," A weather bulletin issued by Pagasa shows temperature in Manila would range from 21 to 29 decrees celcius.

She adds, the weather bureau has not spotted any weather disturbances near the Philippine territory so the public can expect a fair weather. "As of this time the Pacific appears clear. We don't see any disturbance forming," Ruiz said.

Philippines Recorded Coldest Temperature | December 3, 2007 | AHN

waltky · 12-16-2007, 01:41 AM

Sahara dust blocking sunlight?...

Sahara dust cooling North Atlantic
Dec. 14, 2007 -- U.S. researchers say dust from the Sahara Desert was responsible for one-third of the drop in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures between 2005 and 2006.

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Seasonal dust storms may have contributed to the difference in hurricane activity between the two years, NASA said Friday in a release. Images captured last November by an instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite shows Saharan dust blowing off the west coast of Africa and over the Canary Islands.

The report said heat from warm ocean surfaces is known to fuel hurricanes, leading to stronger and more frequent storms. In 2006, sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic remained relatively cool and the season saw only five hurricanes, compared to 15 hurricanes in 2005 when the ocean surface was warmer.

NASA scientists William Lau and Kyu-Myong Kim said airborne Saharan dust over the Atlantic blocked sunlight from reaching the ocean surface. The findings, published in the the American Geophysical Union's Geophysical Research Letters, provides the first quantitative estimate of dust's role in cooling the entire North Atlantic and brings attention to dust as a potentially important influence on hurricane activities, NASA said.

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