Climate Letter #1092

A new study has important things to say about discoveries of ancient climate conditions.  In general, it backs up the kind of findings that a number of other researchers have reported in recent years.  One of the main ones is that ocean surface waters warmed up much more in high latitudes than around the tropics, which would have a considerable effect on the magnitude of surface air temperatures.  The authors believe that water temperature differences can now be determined with a high degree of certainty, and those results give us the best clues to what air temperatures were like.  In this case the period of reference was the Eocene, from 56 to 34 million years ago, when the estimated CO2 level (from other studies) was thought to be above 560 ppm—probably spiking to near or above 1000 at the highest point.  By implication, something in addition to high CO2 caused the high global air temperatures under these early conditions and needs to take into account.  That outcome could result from effects caused by the presence of very warm ocean water spread out over a far larger area than what we are seeing today.  That same observation has been picked up by scientists who research the Pliocene and Miocene eras, which were less ancient than the Eocene and had CO2 levels more like those of today, or what we are soon expecting.  Questions about climate sensitivity, as discussed here in recent letters, are very much involved in findings of this type.

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A new study reveals how narrow the window is for meeting the Paris targets.  The authors back up what others have been saying about the importance of taking required actions without further delay, including measures for adaptation to known consequences.  They put up new numbers, beginning in 2017, for the remaining carbon budget for each of the two alternative targets.  (Current emissions are equal to 10 pgC per year.)
–There is no open access to their paper, but at this site you can get a description of 60 different previously published studies that were used as reference material and may be further investigated:
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Some additional commentaries on the sensitivity question from climate scientists.  The two short videos featuring Andrew Dressler and Patrick Brown should not be overlooked.
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New information about the cooling effect of air pollution that reflects sunlight (Scientific American).  The total effect from burning fossil fuels and other human activity is estimated at between one-half and 1.1 degree C.  A full cleanup would quickly add that much heat to global temperatures, which is something to think about, and possibly find ways to compensate..
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A better way to provide inexpensive storage of power on a grid-scale has been advanced.  The technology has been known for decades, but held up by one significant drawback that has now been overcome by researchers at MIT.  “Sadoway cautions that such batteries would not be suitable for some major uses, such as cars or phones. Their strong point is in large, fixed installations where cost is paramount, but size and weight are not, such as utility-scale load leveling. In those applications, inexpensive battery technology could potentially enable a much greater percentage of intermittent renewable energy sources to take the place of baseload, always-available power sources, which are now dominated by fossil fuels.”
Carl

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