FORBES: "Global Warming Has Stopped"?

How to Fool People Using "Cherry-Picked" Climate Data

“The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years." 

"All of the false claims take advantage of one fundamental truth about the average temperature of our planet: it varies a little, naturally, from year to year...The planet is warming – an observation noted by every climate research institution tracking temperatures, the US National Academy of Sciences (over and over and over), every other national academy of sciences on the planet, and every professional society in the geosciences."

"The most consistent, highly respected, and regularly analyzed and updated data on global surface temperatures are available from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Sciences, NOAA’s National Climate Data Center, and the United Kingdom’s Met Office Hadley Center."

To read more, visit: http://www.forbes.com/sites/petergleick/2012/02/05/global-warming-has-stopped-how-to-fool-people-using-cherry-picked-climate-data/

TIME- Climate Change and Farming: How Not to Go Hungry in a Warmer World

"All of that is important — but not as important as the impact that climate change might have on the most vital function of any species: feeding itself."

To read more, visit: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2105169,00.html#ixzz1kUFzlzOm

TIME: The Year That Winter Forgot: Is It Climate Change?

"...a big-picture perspective does indicate that truly cold temperatures are becoming less and less common in the U.S. To take one example, since 1996, there have been 48 high-temperatures records set in New York City's Central Park — and one just one record low. Since 1980, nearly every year in the U.S. has seen annual average temperatures higher than the long-term average. Confusion and uncertainty still exists over the exact impact of climate change on extreme-weather events like hurricanes or tornadoes, but there's one thing we can be pretty sure of: it will be less cold.

To many people that's probably not a bad thing. Extreme cold isn't just uncomfortable and inconvenient — it's also dangerous, particularly for older or poorer people who can't protect themselves from the elements as well as others. But warmer winters can change nature in dangerous ways as well. Western bark beetles — which have ravaged the pine trees of the west — are thriving because they're no longer being knocked out by very cold winters. Dry warm weather can worsen the risk of forest fires, and short winters can end up intensifying the spring-allergy season. A decline in mountain snowpack in the west can mean less water for dry states that are accustomed to meltwater runoff in the spring.

And then there's the less quantifiable, more lyrical value of winter — a cold, frozen, crystalline season that's beautiful and punishing all at once. As the British poet Anne Bradstreet said, "If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant." Climate change disrupts the rhythm of the seasons, that regular passage of time and temperature we assumed was fixed. It turns out we may be wrong, and winter as we know it could one day be a season of the past. As we keep altering the climate, who can tell what else might follow it into unplanned obsolescence."

To read more, visit: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2104040,00.html#ixzz1jAannRbq

AP: Rapid retreat of Chile glacier captured in images

"SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Researchers in Chile released a series of time-lapse photos Wednesday showing the dramatic retreat of a glacier in Patagonia."

To read more, visit: http://news.yahoo.com/rapid-retreat-chile-glacier-captured-images-201458053.html

NEW YORK TIMES: As Permafrost Thaws, Scientists Study the Risks

"A recent estimate suggests that the perennially frozen ground known as permafrost, which underlies nearly a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere, contains twice as much carbon as the entire atmosphere."

To read more, visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/17/science/earth/warming-arctic-permafrost-fuels-climate-change-worries.html?_r=1&emc=eta1