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You are here: Home / 2021 / Archives for March 2021

Archives for March 2021

A potential rule of thumb for hourly rainfall?

20 Mar 2021 by rasmus

Future global warming will be accompanied by more intense rainfall and flash floods due to increased evaporation, as a consequence of higher surface temperatures which also lead to a higher turn-around rate for the global hydrological cycle. In other words, we will see changing rainfall patterns. And if the global area of rainfall also shrinks, then a higher regional concentration of the rainfall is bound to lead to more intense downpours (the global rainfall indicator is discussed here). 

[Read more…] about A potential rule of thumb for hourly rainfall?

Filed Under: Climate impacts, Climate Science, climate services, hydrological cycle, Solutions, statistics

The Rise and Fall of the “Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation”

4 Mar 2021 by mike

Two decades ago, in an interview with science journalist Richard Kerr for the journal Science, I coined the term the “Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation” (AMO) to describe an internal oscillation in the climate system resulting from interactions between North Atlantic ocean currents and wind patterns. These interactions were thought to lead to alternating decades-long intervals of warming and cooling centered in the extra-tropical North Atlantic that play out on 40-60 year timescales (hence the name). Think of the purported AMO as a much slower relative of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO), with a longer timescale of oscillation (multidecadal rather than interannual) and centered in a different region (the North Atlantic rather than the tropical Pacific).

Today, in a research article published in the same journal Science, my colleagues and I have provided what we consider to be the most definitive evidence yet that the AMO doesn’t actually exist.

[Read more…] about The Rise and Fall of the “Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation”

Filed Under: Climate modelling, Climate Science, Instrumental Record, Oceans

Looking for help with an electricity tax-swap idea

3 Mar 2021 by group

Guest commentary from Yoram Bauman

Everyone from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to Elon Musk thinks that putting a price on carbon is an important step in tackling climate change. Politically, however, carbon taxes and cap-and-trade systems face an uphill battle, in part because they could drive up the prices of household basics like gasoline and electricity. There are many worthy proposals for addressing this concern, mostly focused on the idea of using carbon pricing revenue to pay for things like per-capita dividends, green investments, or reductions in payroll taxes. 

But what if you could put a price on carbon without driving up consumer prices? In California, for example, the impact of the cap-and-trade system on residential electric bills is reduced substantially by the semi-annual Climate Credits that households receive on their bills. 

[Read more…] about Looking for help with an electricity tax-swap idea

Filed Under: Solutions

Forced responses: Mar 2021

1 Mar 2021 by group

A bi-monthly open thread on climate solutions.

Filed Under: Open thread, Solutions

Unforced Variations: Mar 2021

1 Mar 2021 by group

This month’s open thread. Northern Hemisphere Spring is on it’s way, along with peak Arctic/minimum Antarctic sea ice, undoubtedly more discussion about the polar vortex, and the sharpening up of the (currently very uncertain) ENSO forecast for the rest of this year.

Filed Under: Climate Science, El Nino, Open thread

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