Dr. Kim Cahill, University of California Davis.

The Academy’s most recent BioForum, Adapting to Climate Chage: Challenges and Prospects, was held on April 17th. Speakers covered topics including the impact of climate change on California’s grape and wine industry, predicted impacts on California’s coastal waters, the role and strategies of power utilities in California, and communicating the science of climate change in an informal education context. I (Peter Roopnarine) moderated the session, and also gave the introduction. My presentation may be viewed here. I will post the other presentations as they become available.

(BBC)

As alpine glaciers around the world retreat, the link to global warming becomes clearer. Average air temperatures at the Ecuadorian glaciers have increase 0.6 degrees Celsius since 1939. That’s a lot of heat for an ice sheet. The reliance of humans, and natural systems, on these water supplies simply cannot be overstated.

The chemistry of the oceans is changing faster than it has in hundreds of thousands of years because of the carbon dioxide being absorbed from the atmosphere, the National Research Council reported Thursday.

(Thanks to Carol T. for the link)

Pledges made at December’s UN summit in Copenhagen are unlikely to keep global warming below 2C, a study concludes.

Position Statement. “Decades of scientific research have shown that climate can change from both natural and anthropogenic causes. The Geological Society of America (GSA) concurs with assessments by the National Academies of Science (2005), the National Research Council (2006), and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) that global climate has warmed and that human activities (mainly greenhouse‐gas emissions) account for most of the warming since the middle 1900s.” (read more…)

The Geological Society of America is the largest association of geoscientists in the world, comprising 22,000 members in 97 countries. Geoscientists have studied climate longer than any other group of scientists. We study climate of the past, present and future, the causes of climate change, and the impacts on both the human and natural worlds. We are in agreement that the Earth’s climate has warmed in the 20th century, that human emission of greenhouse gases is the major cause, and that a future of continued warming is a grim one. THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY IS NOT DIVIDED ON THIS ISSUE.

The last post on this topic reported that alpha vertebrate diversity differs among reef communities in the Cayman Islands, Cuba and Jamaica, with the Caymans having the greatest species richness.

There was no scientific malpractice at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, which was at the centre of the “Climategate” affair.