Category Archives: Land use land cover change

Crowdsourced Climate Complexity – Compiling the WUWT Potential Climatic Variables Reference Page

Posted on February 19, 2012 by

By WUWT regular “Just The Facts” With the help of an array of WUWT reader comments, which began on this thread on January, 15th 2011, and grew on January 22nd, 2011, February 10th, 2011, February 28th, 2011, June 30th, 2011 … Continue reading →

Posted in AMO, Announcements, Antarctic, Arctic, Carbon dioxide, carbon sequestration, Citizen science, climate data, clouds, cosmic rays, dust storms, earth, education, energy, ENSO, Environment, feedbacks, flooding, forecasting, geothermal energy, global warming, hurricanes, Land use land cover change, lightning, measurement, Methane, modeling, oceans, PDO, Science, sea ice, snowfall, Temperature, tornadoes, UHI, weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 113 Comments

Study: ‘green’ biofuels could be costing the earth

Posted on November 4, 2011 by

From the University of Leicester  department of inconvenient truths: New study suggests EU biofuels are as carbon intensive as petrol University of Leicester research into greenhouse gas emissions from oil palm plantations provides robust measures now being used to inform … Continue reading →

Posted in carbon footprint, Environment, Green tech, Land use land cover change | Tagged , , | 74 Comments

More on land use change affecting temperatures

Posted on April 18, 2011 by

Pursuant to the story on sugarcane cooling the local climate, here are two posts from Dr. Roger Pielke Senior that show the effects of land use change in other venues. ============================================================== Excellent Presentation Of Land Use/Land Cover Effects On Climate … Continue reading →

Posted in Land use land cover change | Tagged | 14 Comments

Another significant land use effect found – sugar cane

Posted on April 18, 2011 by

It has long been known that changes in land use can affect local temperatures. Switching from forest to pastureland to a concrete jungle has a measurable effect. Here, we see that the type of crop associated has a dramatic effect: … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Land use land cover change | Tagged , | 106 Comments

More proof that Kilimanjaro’s problems are man-made; but not what some think it is

Posted on February 23, 2011 by

More proof positive that land use change has more to do with Kilimanjaro’s diminishing snowfall (due to reduced evapotranspiraton of surrounding land) than climate change. But, will we ever see Al Gore or Dr. Lonnie Thompson say anything other than … Continue reading →

Posted in Al Gore, Land use land cover change | Tagged , , , , , | 38 Comments

Some People Claim There’s a Human to Blame (GW Tiger)

Posted on January 31, 2011 by

Guest post by Ira Glickstein Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame, But I know, it’s my own damn fault.. The original Jimmy Buffet lyrics say “woman to blame” but I changed it to “human” in the title … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon dioxide, climate data, IPCC, Land use land cover change, measurement | Tagged , | 95 Comments

Bangladesh, the Poster Child

Posted on January 3, 2011 by

Guest post by: B.Quartero Bangladesh, the largest Delta in the world, has been the poster child of a scary sea level rise story ever since “An Inconvenient Truth”. There is much to be concerned about in Bangladesh, and flooding is … Continue reading →

Posted in Land use land cover change, sea level | Tagged , , , , , , , | 56 Comments

UAH and UHI

Posted on December 16, 2010 by

Note: clearly satellites can see urban heat, as demonstrated by this recent paper unveiled at the 2010 AGU meeting by NASA. See: Satellites Image the Urban Heat Islands in the Northeast. It can also be demonstrated that the UHI biases the … Continue reading →

Posted in climate data, Land use land cover change, UHI | Tagged , , , , , , , | 155 Comments

NYT’s sort-of-clarity on Norfolk sinking aka “sea level rise” and an inconvenient map

Posted on November 26, 2010 by

This is a map and photo of Sharp’s Island and its sinking lighthouse in Chesapeake Bay, we’ll get back to that after the main article about Norfolk. GreenHell Blog writes: In an above-the-fold, front-page story, the Times’ Leslie Kaufman tried … Continue reading →

Posted in Land use land cover change, media, sea level | 79 Comments

Kilimanjaro’s snow – it’s about land use change, tree cutting

Posted on September 28, 2010 by

From the we told you so, twice, no make that three times, department, the poster child for climate change is cited in the New Scientist where they say a peer reviewed paper shows that it’s mostly about the trees and … Continue reading →

Posted in Al Gore, glaciers, Land use land cover change | Tagged | 52 Comments

Christy on irrigation and regional temperature effects

Posted on September 12, 2010 by

In this recent post I discussed a paper on regional temperature divergence issues related to irrigation from Dr. John Christy saying: New irrigation effects study counter to what Christy discovered This press release below from Columbia University shown below suggests that … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, climate data, Land use land cover change | 55 Comments

New irrigation effects study counter to what Christy discovered

Posted on September 8, 2010 by

This press release below from Columbia University shown below suggests that irrigation cools the region undergoing irrigation. However, a study published three years ago of California’s central valley by Dr. John Christy suggests exactly the opposite. See this WUWT post … Continue reading →

Posted in Land use land cover change | 82 Comments

The Big Valley: Altitude Bias in GHCN

Posted on August 19, 2010 by

Foreword: The focus of this essay is strictly altitude placement/change of GHCN stations. While challenge and debate of the topic is encouraged, please don’t let the discussion drift into other side issues. As noted in the conclusion, there remain two … Continue reading →

Posted in GHCN, Land use land cover change, NOAA, UHI, Uncategorized, weather_stations | 161 Comments

New Study Examines Effects of Drought in the Amazon

Posted on August 11, 2010 by

From Woods Hole Research Institute: Click on image for larger view. (Left) Average dry-season enchanced vegetation index (EVI) across central South America for the period 2000–2008. Overlaid circles represent average vapor pressure deficit (VPD), a measure of the drying power … Continue reading →

Posted in Land use land cover change, Science | 24 Comments

Corn as a local climate forcing

Posted on August 9, 2010 by

How corn may be helping Michigan keep its cool From the “corn is not climate” department and  David Veselenak, The Grand Rapids Press Grand Rapids hasn’t seen the thermometer break 100 degrees since 1988. Some climatologists say the reason is … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Climate News, Land use land cover change | 70 Comments

U.S. Forest Service embraces climate change

Posted on July 22, 2010 by

No word on Smokey bear’s new duties yet, but maybe they’ll make him do a new public service pitch, maybe something like this: Above: a parody image,  see WUWT story on Ursus Bogus Forest Service Shifts Strategy to Address Changing … Continue reading →

Posted in Environment, Government idiocy, Land use land cover change, satire | 51 Comments

The Union of Concerned Scientists tackles gardening to save the planet

Posted on May 10, 2010 by

From a press release from the Union of Concerned Scientists, we learn that you don’t need to worry anymore about global warming, we can just garden our way to carbon nirvana, that is, if the bugs don’t eat it. -Anthony … Continue reading →

Posted in carbon sequestration, Land use land cover change, ridiculae | 184 Comments

Taiwan sinking: Subsidence or Global Warming Induced Sea Level Rise?

Posted on May 10, 2010 by

This news story about Taiwan has been making the rounds with the usual alarming news outlets. My view is clearly on subsidence, caused by poor land use practice. See below the Continue Reading line for the easily found reasons. Excerpts: … Continue reading →

Posted in Land use land cover change, media, sea level | 82 Comments

Corned grief: biofuels may increase CO2

Posted on March 15, 2010 by

From the “damned if you do, damned if you don’t department”. More Maize Ethanol May Boost Greenhouse Gas Emissions From the American Institute of Biological Sciences Read the full article (PDF) In the March 2010 issue of BioScience, researchers present … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Carbon dioxide, Land use land cover change | 263 Comments

UCAR: Roof white out helps UHI

Posted on February 8, 2010 by

I find it humorous thatUCAR had to resort to modeling to prove something that can be measured empirically. But then again this is UCAR, and they have a big computer at their NCAR office. Painting roofs white would probably help … Continue reading →

Posted in Land use land cover change, modeling, UHI | 130 Comments

Save the planet from GHG’s – use astroturf?

Posted on January 19, 2010 by

Now according to this press release from UC Irvine, green spaces in cities are bad for the planet….but wait, what about the UHI offset? Can I buy grass credit certificates? Urban ‘green’ spaces may contribute to global warming, UCI study … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate News, Land use land cover change | 149 Comments

Intensive land-management leaves Europe without carbon sinks

Posted on November 23, 2009 by

Away from Climategate and back to science, here’s something interesting fingering land use as an issue. This is from the Max Planck Society. A new calculation of Europe’s greenhouse gas balance shows that emissions of methane and nitrous oxide tip … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon dioxide, Land use land cover change | 36 Comments

Georgia Tech: “50 percent of the [USA] warming that has occurred since 1950 is due to land use changes rather than greenhouse gases”

Posted on November 11, 2009 by

From a Georgia Tech Press Release: Reducing Greenhouse Gases May Not Be Enough to Slow Climate Change Georgia Tech City and Regional Planning Professor Brian Stone publishes a paper in the December edition of Environmental Science and Technology that suggests … Continue reading →

Posted in climate_change, Land use land cover change | 106 Comments

USA Today: Expanding cities contribute to global warming

Posted on November 8, 2009 by

From Roger Pielke Sr. A very good news article titled Expanding cities contribute to global warming by Doyle Rice has been published on USA Today. The article is based on our paper Fall, S., D. Niyogi, A. Gluhovsky, R. A. … Continue reading →

Posted in Land use land cover change | 41 Comments

Quote of the week #22 – Experts say that fears surrounding climate change are overblown

Posted on November 7, 2009 by

The Times posted a surprising story this weekend that has skeptics cheering and alarmists hopping mad. It’s deja vu all over again. (See QOTW#21) Roger Pielke Sr. will be happy, because land use change is prominently mentioned. Here’s the line: … Continue reading →

Posted in Alarmism, Land use land cover change | 69 Comments