Is Climate Change Increasing Tornado Intensity?

Lightning strikes from a storm illuminate a home damaged by a tornado on Hyde Park Lane at Country Club Rd. in Cleburne, Wednesday night, May 15, 2013. 

Is Climate Change Increasing Tornado Intensity? - With at least 10 tornadoes ripping through North Texas in one night this week — leveling neighborhoods, killing six and injuring dozens — it might be tempting to call the twisters yet another instance of climate-fueled weather. But not so fast.

While most climate scientists agree that global warming is driving record heat waves, widespread drought, heavy rain and floods, intense hurricanes, and even monster snowstorms, tornadoes — at least for now — are a different story.

"With tornadoes, what we don't know is as much as what we do know,'' said Michael Wehner, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Global warming is making wet places wetter and dry places drier, and creating moisture-laden air that fuels hurricanes and snowstorms, making them much worse than they otherwise would be in a climate unchanged by human behaviors. 

But we can't necessarily say the same the same about tornadoes, at least not yet. The tornado connection to global warming is tenuous, and for several reasons. Chief among them is the fact that climate change apparently affects the two major factors influencing tornadoes — energy and wind shear — in completely opposite ways.

Tornadoes, violently rotating columns of air spawned by thunderstorms, occur when available energy — warm, moist air at low levels and cold, drier air above — meets vertical wind shear, which provides the source of the rotation. Climate change enhances the former, also known as "convective available potential energy,'' or CAPE, and diminishes the latter.

As the planet warms, "the energy goes up, and the shear goes down,'' said Harold Brooks, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory. "Thus, we have one ingredient expected to become more favorable and another expected to become less favorable.''

Furthermore, the enormous natural variability in tornadoes makes it difficult to sort out any viable climate trends. Also, what seems like an increase in excessive violent tornado activity in recent years may in fact be the result of other factors.

"Tornadoes are small, and the observational record shows increases that are simply due to more people in more places seeing them,'' said Kevin Trenberth, distinguished senior scientist in the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

There also is a dearth of information about what happens to tornadoes over time. Tornado reporting and record-keeping practices have been fraught with problems. "Our database for evaluating long-term changes in tornadoes is pretty awful, so we really don't know how tornadoes might be changing,'' said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for the Weather Underground.

Brooks agreed. "Tornado data collection has never been intended as a climate data set,'' he said. "Large changes have taken place in reporting procedures that make interpretation of the past very difficult.''

Tornadoes can be terrifying and destructive, causing about 70 deaths and 1,500 injuries in the United States annually, according to NOAA. The strongest ones feature rotating winds of more than 250 miles per hour; they can be as wide as 1 mile and stay on the ground for distances as far as 50 miles. The year 2011 brought an onslaught of vicious tornadoes, including a catastrophic twister that struck Joplin, Mo., in May, killing 161 people and destroying a third of the city.

They can happen anywhere there is enough moist air at low levels, cold dry air aloft and strong vertical wind shear. "Tornadoes are spawned in particular environments that occur more in the United States than anywhere else,'' Trenberth said. "It relates to the Rockies running north-south and the Gulf of Mexico being where it is. "Tornadoes are small in scale and not modeled in global models,'' he added, explaining why it is so difficult to link them to climate change. "Meteorologists can find two storms that look almost identical and in similar environments, and one spawns a tornado and one doesn't, so there is a large element of chance, evidently.''

Tornadoes are further complicated by the fact that certain small-scale processes — friction at the ground, and where and how much rain evaporates within the parent thunderstorm — also are critical. "Those are beyond our large-scale observational capabilities or predictions,'' Brooks said.

No one knows whether tornadoes have increased in number or intensity, since the aforementioned changes in reporting practices "make the intensity question harder to answer,'' Brooks said, adding, "If you take the dataset of reports at face value, it appears intensity has decreased over the years, but there are a number of things that have led to lower ratings for the strongest tornadoes.''

There always have been strong tornadoes, but the intensity picture has become further muddled because "warnings are so much better now and houses are constructed better," Trenberth said.

Most climate scientists believe that clearer answers will be forthcoming with better climate modeling tools — and patience.

"Better understanding of the relationships between the large-scale environments and tornadoes would help, but the big thing is waiting long enough to get better trend estimates,'' Brooks said.

Wehner agreed. "We need bigger computers, and better models,'' he said. "But what we really need is time. We don't yet have an answer. But, that doesn't mean we aren't thinking about it.'' ( LiveScience.com )

Blog : Paying The Highest

Post : Is Climate Change Increasing Tornado Intensity?

READ MORE - Is Climate Change Increasing Tornado Intensity?

Climate Change-Related Heat Deaths To Spike In New York City

Climate Change - Related Heat Deaths To Spike In New York City, Study Projects - An increasing number of New Yorkers are likely to die from heat-related causes as global warming causes more extreme heat events, according to a new study released Sunday.

The study found that heat-related mortality may rise 20 percent by the 2020s, and in some worst-case scenarios, it could increase by 90 percent or more by the 2080s, and the net temperature-related mortality, which includes the drop in deaths related to cold weather, could jump by a third compared to current levels.

The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, was produced by Tiantian Li of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and Radley Horton and Patrick Kinney of Columbia University. The study is the most thorough examination to date of how global warming is likely to alter monthly temperature-related mortality in a major metropolitan area, at a time when the world is becoming increasingly urbanized and mayors are pursuing climate adaptation projects in the U.S. and abroad.

With global-average surface temperatures increasing in response to manmade emissions of greenhouse gases, the world has already been seeing an uptick in the frequency and severity of deadly extreme heat events, and a decrease in cold-weather extremes.

Some other studies have claimed that as heat wave-related deaths increase, they will be offset by a reduction in cold weather-related deaths, keeping the net change in mortality low or possibly even resulting in fewer temperature-related deaths per year. This study, however, finds the opposite to be true.

Extreme heat is already the No. 1 weather-related killer in the U.S., killing an average of 117 people per year during the 2003-2012 period. Hot temperatures can contribute to cardiovascular disease, aggravate respiratory illness, and cause heat stroke, among other life-threatening conditions.

Even a small amount of global warming can have a large effect on weather extremes, as recent studies have shown.

In the study, each of the 32 projections from 16 different computer models all yielded an increase in net annual temperature-related deaths, mainly due to the increase in heat-related illnesses. The researchers found a net annual increase in mean temperature-related mortality in New York City of between 5.3 percent and 6.2 percent by the 2020s, depending on the emissions scenario used, and between a 15.5 and 31.0 percent increase by the 2080s.

Cities tend to be warmer than surrounding areas due to the urban heat island effect, since buildings and pavement absorb more incoming solar radiation during the day, and give off heat more slowly at night. Between 1901 and 2000, the average temperature at New York’s Central Park rose by about 3.6°F, which was faster than the national average. Last year was New York’s hottest on record, with summer temperatures that exceeded 100ºF on several occasions.

According to a study published in 2012 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, during the period from 1951-1980, extremely hot summers covered just 1 percent of Earth’s land area. That had risen to 10 percent of the Earth’s land area by the period from 1981-2010, and even higher during the 2006-2010 period.

In other words, the study found that the odds of such extreme summers were about 1-in-300 during the 1951-1980 timeframe, but that had increased to nearly 1-in-10 by 1981-2010.

A heat wave in Chicago in 1995 killed hundreds, and the 2003 European heat wave, which studies have shown was made more likely by manmade global warming, killed an estimated 40,000 people.

The larger increase in heat-related deaths compared to the drop in cold-related deaths foreseen by the new study makes sense when one considers that what are typically counted as cold weather-related deaths may not in fact be due to the cold.

According to Patrick Kinney, who directs Columbia’s Climate and Health Program at the Mailman School of Public Health and co-authored the new study, previous research mistakenly attributed spikes in cold season deaths to temperature, rather than illnesses such as influenza, which tend to reach their peak during the winter. These diseases will continue to take their toll during the winter.

“In reality, winter respiratory and related cardiovascular deaths won’t go away at warmer temperatures,” Kinney said in an email. “We see evidence of that when we look at cities that already have warmer temperatures — such as Honolulu — they still have just as big of a winter increase in deaths as much colder places, like Detroit.”

The study found the biggest percentage changes in heat-related mortality would occur during the months of May and September, as those months would begin to see extreme heat events that typically only occur in the June-through-August period.

The study assumes that the increase in temperatures on the hottest and coldest days will shift in lock step with the increase in typical summer or winter temperatures. However, other research has shown that this is not necessarily the case, with larger shifts in the most extreme temperatures taking place in response to a generally warming climate. That may mean that the study actually underestimates future temperature-related mortality.

On the other hand, the study does not take into account the impacts of adaptation measures, such as expanding the use of air conditioning, nor does it address possible changes in humidity and air quality, which would also influence mortality rates.

“One critical question is the extent to which as a society we may be able to better adapt to heat events in the future,” said co-author Radley Horton of Columbia. He cited New York’s efforts to plant trees, make rooftops more reflective to reduce the urban heat island effect, and increase access to air conditioned-cooling centers, as examples of steps that have already been taken to minimize heat-related illness.

“Around the U.S., will such adaptation strategies — which are already yielding benefits — be able to keep pace with rising temperatures?” Horton said in an email, “Or will potential non-linear surprises, such as small increases in summer temperature producing large impacts on public health and supporting infrastructure, predominate? Many Americans, of course, do not currently have easy access to air conditioning.” ( HuffPost.com ) 

Blog : Paying The Highest

Post : Climate Change-Related Heat Deaths To Spike In New York City

READ MORE - Climate Change-Related Heat Deaths To Spike In New York City

Will Climate Change Get Cold Shoulder in Obama's 2nd Term?

Will Climate Change Get Cold Shoulder in Obama's 2nd Term? - As President Barack Obama prepares to take the oath of office for the second time, he has promised that climate change will be a priority in his second term. The chances that significant climate action will actually happen, however, remain slim, policy experts say.

"I always have hope, but it is sometimes hard to see how real progress, substantial progress, is going to be made with the fact that the Congress is so polarized," said Travis Franck, a policy analyst for nongovernmental organization Climate Interactive.

After his re-election, Obama told Time magazine that his daughters inspired him to think long term, particularly about issues of climate change. And in his first news conference after the election, the president told reporters that he planned to shape a climate change agenda, but gave no details on what that agenda might look like — though he did say that a tax on carbon emissions was likely a non-starter.

These statements took place before the massacre at Newtown, Conn., which pushed gun control to the forefront. And climate change will surely have to vie for attention with other divisive issues, such as an upcoming congressional battle over the nation's debt ceiling. While Obama may be able to take some executive action to tighten environmental regulations in certain sectors, such as fuel-efficient vehicles or clean energy, experts say, a gridlocked Congress is unlikely to cooperate with the administration's global warming agenda.

"From my point of view, being an observer from Europe, I think it's more likely this sector-by-sector approach is implemented than a national climate policy," said Niklas Höhne, the director of energy and climate policy at Ecofys, a renewable energy and climate policy consulting firm.

An urgent call for action

Obama's second term comes at a time when climate scientists are making increasingly urgent calls for action to mitigate the effects of a warming world. In November, University of Bern, Switzerland, climate researcher Thomas Stocker warned in the journal Science that every year of delay makes it harder to keep warming below levels that would severely disrupt the planet.

A cap of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) of warming, the most conservative goal discussed by the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, is already out of reach, Stocker wrote. After 2027, the world can no longer hope to keep warming below 3.6 degrees F (2 degrees C), which is the number currently at the center of international climate negotiations.

The World Bank also issued a report in November, calling for global action on climate change. And in January, a study published in the journal Nature found that the biggest determiner of whether the world would successfully tackle climate change is not tech savvy or hoped-for green development, but the timing of political action.

Public opinion appears receptive to climate change as well. About 73 percent of Democrats, 63 percent of independents and 33 percent of Republicans say they are somewhat or very worried about climate change, according to a September 2012 survey of Americans by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication.

Support for action was higher. Three-quarters of independents, 93 percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans said global warming should be at least a medium priority for the president and Congress. Severe weather such as the summer's wildfires out west may have shifted these opinions, as the same numbers in March 2012 (before the fires) were 9 points lower for Democrats and 7 points lower for independents. Republicans held steady between March and September.

Challenges in Congress

The party schisms seen in the polling data are more pronounced in Congress, where representatives routinely deny the scientific consensus that climate is changing and that greenhouse gas emissions by humans are the main driver.

"I'm not going to bet the U.S. economy or the Texas economy on a theory that is not proven," Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) told the Dallas Morning News this month. "Climate has always been changing."

Attitudes like Barton's are why climate policy specialists expect little in the way of climate legislation in the upcoming four years.

The administration can make some progress on its own, said Elizabeth Sawin, co-director of Climate Interactive. In Obama's first term, for example, the administration ordered new fuel standards for lightweight vehicles and coal-fired power plants, and there was money included in the economic stimulus for public transportation and clean energy. Similar efforts in the second term could move the country toward lower carbon emissions, Sawin told LiveScience.

"Anything is better than nothing," she said.

But a piecemeal approach is less likely than an overarching plan to succeed in slowing warming significantly, Franck, the policy analyst for Climate Interactive, said. Moreover, a failure to act nationally puts the administration in an awkward spot in international negotiations. The 2011 climate talks in Durbin, South Africa, set a plan for a new international climate treaty to be prepared by 2015.

"We've lost a lot of credibility in climate change negotiations, because we've been kind of paralyzed," Franck told LiveScience. "If [international negotiators] bring home a treaty or agree to something, when does it get ratified by the Senate? Will we have domestic legislation already? Will the Senate pass it and then we'll have to pass domestic legislation?"

If the Obama administration is stuck with instituting piecemeal regulations, it will be a "major challenge" to communicate this progress to the international community, Höhne told LiveScience.

"The international climate negotiations really depend on the U.S. bringing something forward," he said. "If the U.S. doesn't bring something forward that is considered by most players as something new and something ambitious, then the new international agreement in 2015 will not be ambitious." ( LiveScience.com )

Blog : Paying The Highest

Post : Will Climate Change Get Cold Shoulder in Obama's 2nd Term?

READ MORE - Will Climate Change Get Cold Shoulder in Obama's 2nd Term?

Global warming activists seek to purge ‘deniers’ among local weathermen

Global warming activists seek to purge ‘deniers’ among local weathermen - Concerned that too many “deniers” are in the meteorology business, global warming activists this month launched a campaign to recruit local weathermen to hop aboard the alarmism bandwagon and expose those who are not fully convinced that the world is facing man-made doom.

The Forecast the Facts campaign — led by 350.org, the League of Conservation Voters and the Citizen Engagement Lab — is pushing for more of a focus on global warming in weather forecasts, and is highlighting the many meteorologists who do not share their beliefs.

“Our goal is nothing short of changing how the entire profession of meteorology tackles the issue of climate change,” the group explains on their website. “We’ll empower everyday people to make sure meteorologists understand that their viewers are counting on them to get this story right, and that those who continue to shirk their professional responsibility will be held accountable.”

According to the Washington Post, the reason for the campaign can be found in a 2010 George Mason University surveys, which found that 63% of television weathermen think that global warming is a product of natural causes, while 31% believe it is from human activity.

So far, the campaign has identified 55 “deniers” in the meteorologist community and are looking for more. They define “deniers” as “anyone who expressly refutes the overwhelming scientific consensus about climate change: that it is real, largely caused by humans, and already having profound impacts on our world.”

“We track the views of meteorologists through their on-air statements, blog posts, social media activity, public appearances, interviews, and interactions with viewers,” the campaign explains.

The Houston Chronicle noted that meteorologists mostly track short periods of weather, not long-term climate trends.

“You wouldn’t ask your dentist about your gallbladder and you shouldn’t ask your local TV weatherman about climate change,” Houston’s KTRK Channel 13 chief meteorologist, Tim Heller, told The Chronicle.

“Operational meteorologists and forecasters are not climatologists. The background education is somewhat similar, but our area of expertise is different,” he added. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t stop some TV weather forecasters from spouting off on the subject.”

While some meteorologists question and push back against the campaign, ThinkProgress said that the “deniers” are not doing their audience any favors.

“These climate denier meteorologists are betraying the public’s trust and distorting America’s airwaves with ideological science denial,” the liberal publication reported, listing the names of a majority of the campaign’s identified “deniers.”

Forecast the Facts is currently pushing for signatures to their petition, which calls on the American Meteorological Society (AMS) to pass a new official statement on climate change.

“I urge the AMS Council to immediately pass a new information statement that reflects the widespread scientific consensus that climate change is increasingly impacting our planet, and then vigorously promote that statement to AMS members,” the letter reads. ( The Daily Caller )

READ MORE - Global warming activists seek to purge ‘deniers’ among local weathermen

Storm over climate change among weather forecasters

Storm over climate change among weather forecasters - You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

But weather forecasters, many of whom see climate change as a natural, cyclical phenomenon, are split over whether they have a responsibility to educate their viewers on the link between human activity and the change in the Earth's climates.

Only 19 percent of U.S. meteorologists saw human influences as the sole driver of climate change in a 2011 survey. And some, like the Weather Channel's founder John Coleman are vocal in their opposition.

"It is the greatest scam in history," wrote Coleman, one of the first meteorologists to publicly express doubts about climate change, on his blog in 2007. "I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; it is a SCAM."

The climate change controversy has split the American Meteorological Society, whose members are Americans' prime source of news about weather and climate

In its last official view issued in 2007, the AMS acknowledged that global warming is occurring and that human activities exacerbate it, especially the burning of fossil fuels and the release of the climate-warming gas, carbon dioxide.

Research since 2007 has only solidified climate science findings, said AMS Executive Director Keith Seitter. AMS members who disagree, he said, are in a minority, though an often outspoken one.

"There are some extremely vocal people who are arguing on that issue, but I think the science has continued to become more clear, not less so," Seitter said by telephone from Boston.

The controversy has held up the society's updated view on climate change but Seitter said expects the new AMS statement to hew closely to its position in 2007 and include updated scientific findings.

An online grassroots campaign called "Forecast the Facts" said the society needs to go beyond a strong statement on climate change and require that its members "report the current scientific consensus on climate change."

"As it stands right now, it is considered within the realm of acceptable discourse for media outlets, corporations and politicians to deny climate change and to stand in the way of much needed action," Daniel Souweine, who heads the campaign, said in an email.

Forecast the Facts is supported by the non-profit environmental groups League of Conservation Voters and 350.org, and has gotten 14,000 signatures for its petition to the AMS, Souweine said.

They will be hard-pressed to convince forecasters like Bob Breck, a weatherman at Fox Channel 8 in New Orleans who is vocal in his skepticism over climate change.

"AMS has long been dominated by people in academia, which is ok, they're the PhDs ... except those of us who I consider operational meteorologists, we were basically ignored," Breck said by telephone. "I believe in global warming cycles and we have been in a warming cycle. What I don't believe is that the driver of this current warming cycle is carbon dioxide."

Most weathermen and women have degrees in meteorology - the study of how Earth's atmosphere behaves in the short term - but few have studied climate science, which examines the wider system where weather occurs.

THE DIVIDE

But meteorologists advise Americans every day, and that makes them powerful shapers of public opinion. Most don't mention global warming in their weathercasts, but many also blog, and that is often where the skepticism surfaces.

Most U.S. meteorologists -- 82 percent in a 2011 survey -- are convinced that climate is changing, but many say it's changing because of natural causes, or human and natural causes combined.

That contrasts with about 95 percent of climate scientists who are convinced that climate change is occurring and that human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, are a key driver of it. This tallies with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which reported with 90 percent certainty in 2007 on the causes and effects of climate change.

To Edward Maibach, director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University, that split shows that efforts like Forecast the Facts are misguided.

"It presumes that AMS is part of the problem, and I actually think the AMS is doing really, really solid work to help their weathercaster members expand the way they currently define their day job to include climate education as part of their role," Maibach said.

Maibach, who tracks meteorologists' attitudes on climate change, said skeptics in the group believe their concerns are being ignored.

"They feel their views and their concerns about the science are not being taken seriously," Maibach said. "It's pretty easy to understand how one gets to a place of anger when they feel dismissed and disrespected." ( Reuters )

READ MORE - Storm over climate change among weather forecasters

Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane

How to Buy Time in the Fight against Climate Change: Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane - Humanity has done little to address climate change. Global emissions of carbon dioxide reached (another) all-time peak in 2010. The most recent international talks to craft a global treaty to address the problem pushed off major action until 2020. Fortunately, there's an alternative—curbing the other greenhouse gases.

Specifically, in the case of rapid action to slow catastrophic climate change, the best alternatives appear to be: methane and black carbon (otherwise known as soot). A new economic and scientific analysis published in Science on January 13 of the benefits of cutting these two greenhouse gases finds the benefits to be manifold—from human health to increased agricultural yields.

Even better, by analyzing some 400 potential soot- and methane-emission control measures, the international team of researchers found that just 14 deliver "nearly 90 percent" of the potential benefits. Bonus: the 14 steps also restrain global warming by roughly 0.5 degree Celsius by 2050, according to computer modeling.

That's because both methane and black carbon only remain in the atmosphere for a short time compared with CO2. As atmospheric physicist Veerabhadran Ramanathan of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, said of such efforts to reduce atmospheric soot a few years ago: "If the world pays attention and puts resources to it, we will see an effect immediately. I'm talking weeks, at most a few months, not decades or centuries."

The 14 measures that would immediately slow global warming are:

• Eliminate methane releases from coal mines—particularly in China—by capturing it and burning it.
• Eliminate the venting or accidental release of methane co-produced by oil drilling (and, of course, gas drilling itself), particularly in Africa, the Middle East and Russia.
• Capture gas from landfills in the U.S. and China as well as promote recycling and composting of biodegradable trash.
• Occasionally aerate flooded rice paddies to prevent the growth of methane-producing microbes.
• Stop leaks from natural gas pipelines, particularly in Russia.
• Use bio-digesters—vessels in which microbes break down manure into gas—to cut methane from livestock globally.
• Update wastewater treatment plants to capture methane.
• Filter the soot produced by incomplete combustion of diesel fuel in vehicles, and attempt to eliminate inefficient internal combustion engine vehicles entirely.
• Replace indoor cooking and heating fires with clean-burning cookstoves fired either by wood, manure or other biomass or, even better, methane.
• Replace traditional brick kilns with more advanced firing methods.
• Replace traditional ovens for turning coal to coke with modern technologies.
• Ban the open burning of crop stubble and other agricultural waste.

The researchers estimate that cutting those 14 together could avoid between 700,000 and 4.7 million premature deaths (largely from smoky, unhealthy air) and increase crop yields by between 30 million and 135 million metric tons (due to concomitant reductions in ground-level ozone, otherwise known as smog, which forms from fugitive methane and blights crops in Brazil, China, India, the U.S. and elsewhere). In addition, the economic analysis suggests that many of these measures provide more value in benefits than they cost to implement.

Finally, the really good news is that every single one of the required technologies already exist and are being used in various parts of the world. For example, Senegal has "switched virtually its entire population from traditional stoves to modern ones, so it can be done," climate scientist Drew Shindell of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, lead author of the study, wrote in an e-mail. It is simply a matter of global adoption or, as the United Nations Environment Programme put it in a similar analysis last year, "much wider and more rapid implementation is required to achieve the full benefits."

In addition to saving lives, stopping soot may also preserve endangered ecosystems, such as the mountain glaciers of the Himalayas and Karakoram or Arctic sea ice. In fact, the computer modeling suggests cutting black carbon could forestall as much as two thirds of the warming in the Arctic—the fastest warming region of the globe—over the next 30 years. Even more significantly (from the human perspective), eliminating the atmospheric smut known as the "Asian brown cloud" could help maintain the monsoon patterns that bring water to India while reducing drought risk in places like the Sahel.

This doesn't mean that humanity would not have to deal with CO2 emissions—and would not be storing up future trouble by continuing to emit at our present pace—but it would buy time and, perhaps even more importantly, significantly reduce the chances of catastrophic climate change. Adding in cuts in yet more non-CO2 greenhouse gases—like the hydrofluorocarbons currently being phased out under the terms of the Montreal Protocol to eliminate the ozone hole—will also help. "These are things to do in addition to but not instead of reducing CO2 emissions," Shindell emphasized.

So why isn't this happening already? First and foremost, it is—in some parts of the world, at least. But short-term cost considerations, institutional structures and even societal priorities can stand in the way. For example, limited budgets might keep a municipality from installing methane capture at the local landfill in the U.S. Or an oil company might refrain from investing in similar methane capture at its wells because it can make more money investing in opening a new field instead. "In poor places, it really can be a lack of the upfront costs," Shindell added. There's also the not insignificant challenge of implementing such solutions globally—otherwise known as the problem of scale—as well as overcoming the reasons of engaging in traditional practices, such as burning the residue in agricultural fields to increase fertility, in the first place.

But there's a more fundamental reason for the inertia, according to the researchers, who note that "the benefits would not necessarily accrue to those incurring costs." That also explains our inaction on climate change generally. Or as Shindell noted "It's not trivial to get this done—even if it's beneficial for society as a whole." ( scientificamerican.com )

READ MORE - Mobilize to Stop Soot and Methane

European ski resorts in 'lockdown' after freak snowfalls cut road, rail and air links

European ski resorts in 'lockdown' after freak snowfalls cut road, rail and air links - 1,000 British skiers trapped in Alps after severe snowfalls - Falling trees and rocks blocking many routes - Avalanche warning raised to stage three, or 'considerable risk' -Holidaymakers advised to stay indoors

Ski resorts across Europe are in 'lockdown' after a series of freak snowfalls severed road, rail and air links amid serious fears of avalanches.

Tourists in areas across Austria, southern Germany, France and Switzerland have been advised to stay indoors after several feet of snow fell in just a few days.

Some business owners are so worried they have taken to shutting up shops and restaurants by 9pm - with many runs also closed.

Scroll down for video...

Deluge: A man shovels snow from a roof in Hochfilzen in the western Austrian province of Tyrol

Helping hand: An injured skier is rescued from the Axam, Tyrol region of Austria, following the heavy snowfall

In the Alps more than 1,000 British holidaymakers have been left trapped in the Austrian town of Ischgl after 10ft of powder fell in 48 hours alone. More are said to be stranded in the resorts of Galtur, St Anton and Arlberg.

It is a remarkable turnaround for the resorts who were left fretting at the start of the season after a lack of snow forced them to delay opening.

And it follows the stranding of thousands in the upmarket Swiss ski resort of Zermatt on January 5 when a major avalanche cut it off to all traffic and even helicopters.

Worst affected is western Austria and southeastern Switzerland, in the heart of the Alps, which has been virtually paralysed by the 'once-in-a-decade' snowstorms.

Heavy snowfall in the past days caused major traffic problems and a high danger of avalanches

White out: Mountain rescue search for a missing teenager in the Austrian Tyrol area of Axamer Lizum (left) as a pedestrian walks past snow piled up on a street of Mittenwald, southern Germany

White out: Mountain rescue search for a missing teenager in the Austrian Tyrol area of Axamer Lizum (left) as a pedestrian walks past snow piled up on a street of Mittenwald, southern Germany

Snowed in: Ploughs try to clear the streets in Fiss, eastern Austria

The most heavily hit areas in Austria’s western Tirol and Vorarlberg regions, which received 3 to 6ft of snow in just four days.

Local authorities have elevated the avalanche risk warning to 'high' as they continue searching for a missing 15-year-old skier near the Austrian city of Innsbruck.

WHICH EUROPEAN RESORTS HAVE THE DEEPEST SNOW?

St. Anton am Arlberg - Austria - 545cm

Stuben - Austria - 545cm

Engelberg - Switzerland - 405cm

Crans-Montana - Switzerland - 390cm

Gstaad - Switzerland - 380cm

Gstaad Mountain Rides - Switzerland - 380cm

Saas-Fee - Switzerland - 375cm

Lötschental - Switzerland - 374cm

Zürs - Austria - 370cm

Flims-Laax-Falera - Switzerland - 350cm

* source j2ski.com - amounts of snow on high pistes

Snow was already on the ground before a storm dumped several more feet over the weekend.

Austrian weather service ZAMG said some places had not seen snow 'so deep' in more than 30 years, adding that the village of Nauders last saw a similar depth of 47in in 1951.

And in Germany the 9,718ft summit of the Zugspitze, which only had 7.5in of snow six weeks ago, now has 150in.

Few ski lifts were operating in the Alps yesterday and many pistes were closed down as darkness fell.

One of the few lifts still working shut down in the sub-zero temperatures, stranding 150 skiers on the slopes in the popular resort of Mayrhofen.

Two Austrian Army helicopters were scrambled to airlift a number of inexperienced skiers – including children – down the difficult slopes above the Ahornbahn lift.

High Alpine winds continue to create the potential for fearsome snowslides according to the local Avalanche Commission, which is monitoring the situation.

Some 76,000 households, hotels, pensions and guest houses in the Alps have been hit by power cuts over the past few days as a result of the storms.

‘It is a winter that went from zero to 100’, said Andreas Steibl, tourism director for the Paznaun-Ischgl resort, yesterday.

The main access road, along the Paznaun Valley from the town of Landeck to Ischgl, was open for a while on Saturday – allowing holidaymakers in and out of the resort. But since then the road has been closed because of the high risk of avalanches.

Traffic chaos: Cars getting out of a tunnel on a snowy street near Fiss

Soldiers of the Austrian armed force, pictured search for a missing 15-year-old on Sunday in the ski area of Axamer Lizum. A number of inexperienced skiers including children have had to be airlifted from the snow

Digging out: A man struggles to clear snow in Axam, Tyrol region of Austria

‘Although the roads have been closed, the resort itself has been operating as normal with skiers and boarders experiencing amazingly good conditions,’ Mr Steibl said.

‘Our safety committee is meeting daily to assess the situation and decide when the road can be opened.’

Before Christmas the area enjoyed high temperatures and many in the Tirol region now fear an economic wipeout. Dutch tourist Romke Loopke and his family were buried in their car by an avalanche.

He said; ‘It was scary as hell. One minute it was all white and then the next totally dark. Luckily I got a window open and managed to dig my way out.’

John Thorpe, 33, on holiday from Glasgow with wife Gill and their two sons, told an Austrian radio station in Ischgl; ‘It’s a bit like being trapped in paradise.

Better have the de-icer handy: A car in Haggen, Tyrol region of Austria, is almost completely covered in snow following the extreme fall

Blanketed: The Swiss village of Andermatt succumbed to heavy snowfall earlier on in the week

Forbidden: A street sign in Mittenwald, southern Germany, can only just been seen amongst the mountains of snow

‘We were due to head for Salzburg and home today but we can’t get down the road.

‘The railway line is out and the road is blocked. But I don’t think you will find many people complaining – it’s beautiful and thrilling to see nature this powerful this close to.’

The region’s mayor, Rainer Silberberger, said: ‘We are working to clear roads and secure the snow falls. I’ve never seen weather like it.’

One British ski rep said there was growing frustration among some holidaymakers who were supposed to be back at work yesterday and from those who were due to start their trips at the beginning of the week.

Cloudy: A snow blower, followed by pedestrians, helps to clear the streets of St. Martin near Lofer, in the Austrian province of Salzburg, following the snowfall

Standstill: Regional trains stand on platforms of Mittenwald train station, in southern Germany, after the line between Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck was closed

He said: ‘While I think it is fair to say most people are happy to be trapped, there are those who urgently need to get home and those who want to get started on their holidays, and so a sense of frustration is mounting.’

And ski instructor Sarah Hannibal, who works in Ischgl, said: ‘The skiing conditions are fantastic, although obviously no one is going off-piste at the moment because of the amount of snow.

‘It has been very windy at the top of the mountain which means visibility can be affected by wind-blown snow – but the holidaymakers are having a wonderful time.

‘Many ski instructors who live in other parts of the valley are the ones affected most by the conditions and they have had to make arrangements to stay with friends or at hotels in Ischgl.

‘That includes me as I live in Galtur and have been stranded in Ischgl but it’s no hardship when the skiing is so good.’

What a difference: The slopes of Val D'Isere, seen here last month, had been badly affected by the warmest and driest autumn in the Alps for 147 years ( dailymail.co.uk )

READ MORE - European ski resorts in 'lockdown' after freak snowfalls cut road, rail and air links

Bangkok floods could go into next year

Bangkok floods could go into next year - Parts of Bangkok could still be flooded next year, Thailand's prime minister said on Tuesday, despite waters receding significantly in some areas of the city after weeks of inundation.

Thailand's worst floods in half a century, caused by months of unusually heavy monsoon rains, have left at least 562 people dead and damaged millions of homes and livelihoods around the country.

In an effort to spare Bangkok's economic and political heartland, authorities have been trying to drain the floods through waterways in the east and west of the sprawling capital of 12 million people, and out to sea.

But while Bangkok's centre has remained dry, it could be a number of weeks before the entire capital is free from the floodwaters, according to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.

"Personally I want to see people happy in the new year, but I am not confident about western areas, where it is difficult to drain water," she told reporters, when asked whether the floods would go on into 2012.

A television reporter works in floodwaters in front of Don Muang airport in Bangkok, on November 14. Parts of Bangkok could still be flooded next year, Thailand's prime minister said on Tuesday, despite waters receding significantly in some areas of the city after weeks of inundation



Local villagers, seen here listening to Bangkok's governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra, in front of Don Muang airport in Bangkok, on November 14. Parts of Bangkok could still be flooded next year, Thailand's prime minister said on Tuesday, despite waters receding significantly in some areas of the city after weeks of inundation

She said that eastern areas were likely to be dry before the new year.

"The general situation is stable as floodwaters drain into the sea, but how quickly it drains depends on the contours of each area," Yingluck added.

On Monday, angry residents in the city's flooded west protested by briefly blocking a major highway, as frustration mounted that parts of the Thai capital are suffering badly while the centre stays dry.

Around 70 people also gathered at a major floodwall in northern Don Mueang district, watched by about 30 police officers, to stop authorities repairing a gap they had opened to allow water to drain away from badly flooded areas.

A spokesman for the Flood Relief Operations Centre (FROC), the government agency charged with dealing with the floods, said a compromise had been struck to partially repair the eight-metre (26-foot) breach.

Yingluck, who only came to power in August and has come under intense pressure over her management of the flood crisis, insisted again on Tuesday that she had worked "with good intention and to the best of her ability".

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, due to visit the flood-hit kingdom on Wednesday, will offer a "very substantial" aid package to Thailand, the State Department has said. ( AFP )

READ MORE - Bangkok floods could go into next year

'Bad news' on warming should spur UN talks: climate chief

'Bad news' on warming should spur UN talks: climate chief - The UN's climate chief urged negotiators gathering on Monday for new talks to heed a double dose of "bad news" that global warming could bust a threshold that is widely considered safe.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), urged nations at the 12-day talks in Bonn to carry out their pledge to peg warming to 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

"Now, more than ever, it is critical that all efforts are mobilised towards living up to this commitment," she said in a webcast press conference.

Figueres pointed to "bad news" in the form of reports on carbon emissions released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The Paris-based IEA said last month that carbon from energy use reached a record high in 2010 while the NOAA said that world atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in May had scaled a new peak.

Greenpeace activists burn a symbol of carbon dioxide as they demonstrate in 2008 in Berlin. The UN's climate chief urged negotiators gathering on Monday for new talks to heed a double dose of "bad news" that global warming could bust a threshold that is widely considered safe

The 12-day session in Bonn is meant to lay the groundwork for the next round of high-level negotiations in December in Durban, South Africa.

Some wealthy nations led by the United States favour restricting the scope of the Durban round to consolidating progress made in Cancun, Mexico, last December.

These include the creation of a "green fund" for developing countries that could reach 100 billion dollars a year, a system for monitoring national schemes to reduce emissions, and programmes to boost clean technologies and the ability of poor nations to absorb climate change impacts.

"If we take these steps and start to build the new institutions needed for a pragmatic international regime, COP 17 in Durban will be a solid success," said Jonathan Pershing, the top US negotiator in Bonn.

Developing nations, led by China and other major emerging economies, have embraced these goals, but major disagreements remain on how they should take shape.

Another big area of discord is over the future of the UNFCCC's Kyoto Protocol, the sole treaty that sets down legally binding emissions curbs. ( AFP )

READ MORE - 'Bad news' on warming should spur UN talks: climate chief