Climate Change Index for week ending 17 Jan. 2010
Greenbang’s weekly Climate Change Index tracks research findings and events directly attributable to global warming. Our aim is to provide a numerical, week-to-week indicator of climate change developments.
Items that qualify for listing in each week’s index include new climate data published in peer-reviewed academic journals and extreme weather incidents or other natural events that are likely directly linked to the global warming trend.
The Climate Change Index for this week, ending 17 Jan. 2010 (details below): 6
15 January: New satellite data from the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration shows a consistent and global warming trend in the Earth’s middle troposphere over recent decades.
14 January: A new study reports that methane emissions from wetlands and bogs are increasing in line with rising average temperatures around the globe. That increase could fuel additional warming, as methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
13 January: An analysis of data from NASA shows that 2009 was the hottest year on record for the Southern Hemisphere.
13 January: Scientists report that, rather than benefitting from the lengthening growing season, forests in northern areas are becoming stunted and verging on the edge of survival as the climate warms.
12 January: The latest “State of the Climate” report from the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration finds that, while December temperatures across the contiguous US were below average, temperatures for all of 2009 were above average.
11 January: Butterfly populations in California are declining and, in some cases, moving to higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada due to climate change and loss of habitat, according to a new study from the University of Nevada, Reno.
