Archive for May 2011
Article explores relationship between Greenland’s climatic and human histories
An article released today by lead author William D’Andrea in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences uses lake sediment cores from western Greenland to establish that temperatures in western Greenland have fluctuated dramatically over the past 6000 years. D’Andrea and his coauthors suggest that these prolonged shifts in temperature – sometimes by up to 4 degrees Celsius – coincided with and likely influenced the migration of Saqqaq, Dorset, Norse and Thule peoples. Historical climatologists have long understood that the Little Ice Age was first felt in the arctic, and have sought to link climatic cooling with the ebbing of Viking power for even longer. However, this study challenges many of our assumptions about the scale and chronology of Greenland’s climatic fluctuations, and their consequences for different types of human settlement. Also eye-opening is the attention this article has received in national media outlets. See the Yahoo! news version here.
New Study: 2,300-Year Climate Record from the Andes
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110511131132.htm
Science Daily News reports on a new sediment core study from the Andes, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research, led by a team from the University of Pittsburgh, confirms previous research suggesting lower precipitation in the region during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, culminating in a major drought ~1000-1040AD, coinciding with the decline of the Tiwanaku civilization. The findings also point to a wetter period during the Little Ice Age and reduced precipitation since 1900, which the authors link to changes in ENSO and ITCZ patterns.
New Study: Thousand-Year ENSO Data from SW Tree Rings
http://news.discovery.com/earth/tree-ring-history-of-el-nino-110510.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1
Discovery News reports on a new study in Nature Climate Change extending ENSO reconstructions back to 900AD. The authors find both regular 50-90 year cycles in El Niño amplitude across the last millennium and a trend from more La Niña conditions during the Medieval Climate Anomaly to more El Niño conditions during the Little Ice Age, largely confirming previous studies based on Pacific corals and other proxies.
Alas, Nature Climate Change is so ridiculously expensive that not even my well-endowed little college or the vast Ohio consortium of journal subscriptions it shares will buy it. So unless a more fortunate colleague will send me a PDF of the original study, that is all I can tell you for now…
-SW
CALL FOR AUTHORS: Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change, Second Edition
From H-Env:
“We are inviting academic editorial contributors to the Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change, the second edition of the 3-volume reference to be published in 2012 by SAGE Publications.
This comprehensive work will be marketed and sold to college, public, and academic libraries and includes some 700 articles, covering all aspects of the world environment and related disciplines in the social sciences, including terms and practices, profiles of climate change by country, biographies, and descriptions of environmental organizations. We are now making final assignments with a deadline of July 6, 2011.
Each article, ranging from 700 to 5,000 words, is signed by the contributor. The General Editor of the encyclopedia is S. George Philander, Ph.D., Princeton University,
who will review all the articles for editorial content and academic consistency.
If you are interested in contributing to the encyclopedia, it can be a notable publication addition to your CV/resume and broaden your publishing credits. Payment for the articles are honoraria that range from a $50 book credit at Sage Publications for article submissions totaling 500 to 1,000 words up to free access to the online edition of the encyclopedia for contributions over 10,000 words. More than this, your involvement can help assure that credible and detailed data, descriptions, and analysis are available to students of climate issues.
The list of available articles (Excel file) and Style Guidelines are prepared and will be sent to you in response to your inquiry. Please then select which unassigned articles may best suit your interests and expertise.
If you would like to contribute to building a truly outstanding reference with the Encyclopedia of Global Warming and Climate Change, please contact me by the e-mail information below. Please provide a very brief summary of your background in climate change issues. Thanks for your time and interest.
Sue Moskowitz
Director of Author Management
Golson Media
gw2@golsonmedia.com“
