2010Sept1: Research led by Tim King, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, suggests that horseshoe crabs numbers may continue to decline because of the effects of climate change, such as sea-level rise and water temperature fluctuations. “Using genetic variation, we determined the trends between past and present population sizes of horseshoe crabs and found that a clear decline in the number of horseshoe crabs has occurred that parallels climate change associated with the end of the last Ice Age,” said King, the lead author of the new study published in Molecular Ecology (U.S. News & World Report).

Reference: U.S. News & World Report http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/09/01/climate-change-implicated-in-decline-of-horseshoe-crabs.html

Image Description: Horseshoe crab, Anna Maria Island, Florida. Photo by Amanda, 2005June19. Image Location: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horseshoe_Crab.jpg Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

2010July29: Phytoplankton of the oceans has declined by about 40% over the past century, with much of the loss occurring since the 1950s, according to Dalhousie University researchers. They believe that the decline is linked with rising sea temperatures and global warming. “Phytoplankton are a critical part of our planetary life support system. They produce half of the oxygen we breathe, draw down surface CO2 and ultimately support all of our fishes,” -- marine biologist Boris Worm of Canada’s Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Independent.co.uk, 2010).

Reference: Independent.co.uk http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/the-dead-sea-global-warming-blamed-for-40-per-cent-decline-in-the-oceans-phytoplankton-2038074.html

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jXd6mCFjrw

Nature Editor’s Summary: Phytoplankton in retreat http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7306/edsumm/e100729-03.html

Image Description: Phytoplankton bloom in the South Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Argentina captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite. The photo was taken 2006Feb10. Image Credit and Location: NASA. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php Image Permission: This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that “NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted”.

2010July3: President Barack Obama announces that about $2 billion will be awarded to Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing, two solar energy companies, in order to support the use of solar power in the United States and increase domestic employment. Abengoa Solar will construct a 280-megawatt generating station in Arizona and Abound Solar Manufacturing will produce advanced solar panels in Colorado and Indiana (Xinhua).

Reference: Xinhua http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-07/03/c_13382598.htm

Watch the Presidential Address: A Solar Recovery http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/03/weekly-address-a-solar-recovery

Image Description: From NASA: “A full-disk multiwavelength extreme ultraviolet image of the sun taken by SDO on March 30, 2010. False colors trace different gas temperatures. Reds are relatively cool (about 60,000 Kelvin, or 107,540 F); blues and greens are hotter (greater than 1 million Kelvin, or 1,799,540 F). Credit: NASA/Goddard/SDO AIA Team” Image Location: NASA http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sdo/news/first-light.html Image Permission: This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA.

2010June29: Air-conditioning accounts for about 20% of annual electricity consumption by U.S. homes and 13% by the U.S. commercial sector (UTNE Reader).

Reference: UTNE Reader http://www.utne.com/Wild-Green/Air-Conditioning-Cooling-People-While-Heating-the-World.aspx

Note: The statistics, which appear in the UTNE Reader article, are from “Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer)” by Stan Cox http://www.thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1784

Image Description: Uptown New Orleans. Residence on Annunciation Street. Photo by Infrogmation, 2010Jan5. Image Location Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AnnunciationToledanoDownLakeAwningAirConditioner.jpg

2010June29: The United States, with approximately 308.4 million residents, uses as much electricity for air-conditioning as is consumed by all 930 million Africans (UTNE Reader).

Reference: UTNE Reader http://www.utne.com/Wild-Green/Air-Conditioning-Cooling-People-While-Heating-the-World.aspx

Note: The statistics, which appear in the UTNE Reader article, are from “Losing Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World (and Finding New Ways to Get Through the Summer)” by Stan Cox http://www.thenewpress.com/index.php?option=com_title&task=view_title&metaproductid=1784

Image Description: Air conditioners at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Photo by Ildar Sagdejev, 2008July11. Image Location Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2008-07-11_Air_conditioners_at_UNC-CH.jpg Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 1.0 Generic license.

2010March: According to The National Space Science and Technology Center (UAH) and Remote Sensing Systems (RSS), March 2010 was the hottest March and tied for the hottest March on record in the NASA dataset (Climate Progress). http://climateprogress.org/2010/04/12/global-cooling-hottest-march-on-record-nasa-uah-rss-satellite-data/

2010March: From NOAA: "The combined global land and ocean surface temperature anomaly for March 2010 was 0.77°C (1.39°F) above the 20th century average, resulting in the warmest March since records began in 1880." http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100517_globalstats.html

2010April: Global monthly mean temperature anomalies (NCC, CMA). http://ncc.cma.gov.cn/Monitoring/Bulletin/201004/monitoringc/globalttc.gif

2010January-April: From NOAA: "The combined global land and ocean average surface temperature was the warmest on record for January-April at 56.0°F (13.3°C), which is 1.24°F (0.69°C) above the 20th century average."

2010March: From NOAA: "The combined global land and ocean surface temperature anomaly for March 2010 was 0.77°C (1.39°F) above the 20th century average, resulting in the warmest March since records began in 1880." http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=global&year=2010&month=3&submitted=Get+Report

2010January-April: According to NASA, January-April 2010 was the hottest on record. http://climateprogress.org/2010/05/16/nasa-easily-the-hottest-january-and-hottest-jan-april-in-temperature-record/

2010April: From NOAA: "The global land and ocean temperature during April 2010 was the warmest on record, surpassing the previous record set in 1998." http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100517_globalstats_sup.html

2010April28: U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar approves the Cape Wind project, the first wind farm on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf. The wind turbines are expected to produce enough power to meet 75% of the electricity demand for Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket Island (New York Times, 2010).

Reference: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/science/earth/29wind.html

Read the Department of the Interior Press Release http://www.doi.gov/news/doinews/Secretary-Salazar-Announces-Approval-of-Cape-Wind-Energy-Project-on-Outer-Continental-Shelf-off-Massachusetts.cfm

Image Description: Gay Head Cliffs in Martha’s Vineyard. Photo by JP06035. Image Location http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gay_head_cliffs_MV.JPG Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one.

2010April28: Decreasing levels of sea ice are responsible for unusual increases in temperatures in the Arctic, according to a research study led by James Screen, a researcher the University of Melbourne, Australia. Arctic temperatures have risen twice as fast as the rest of the world in recent decades. According to Screen, “the emergence of these strong ice-temperature feedbacks can only increase the likelihood of further rapid warming and sea ice loss” (Guardian.co.uk, 2010).

Reference: Guardian,co.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/28/arctic-sea-ice-loss-warming

Read the article in Nature http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v464/n7293/full/nature09051.html

Image Description: (Figure 2) Text from NSDIC – “The graph above shows daily sea ice extent as of April 4, 2010. The solid light blue line indicates 2010; green shows 2007; dark blue indicates 1999, the year with the previous latest maximum extent, which occurred on March 29, 1999; and solid gray indicates average extent from 1979 to 2000. The gray area around the average line shows the two standard deviation range of the data.” — Image Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Image Description: (Figure 3) Text from NSDIC – “Monthly March ice extent for 1979 to 2010 shows a decline of 2.6% per decade.” — Image Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center. The images are located at National Snow and Ice Data Center http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

2010Apr1: The U.S. federal government establishes national greenhouse gas emissions standards for the first time. By 2016, new vehicles will be required to have a combined fuel economy average of 35.5 miles per gallon. The new rules are expected to reduce CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases about 30% from 2012 to 2016 (New York Times).

Reference: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/science/earth/02emit.html

EPA news release http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/bd4379a92ceceeac8525735900400c27/562b44f2588b871a852576f800544e01!OpenDocument

Image Description: Interstate 405 Southbound in Bellevue, Washington. Photo by Goldman60, 2009June3. Image Location: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:I-405_Southbound_Bellevue.jpg Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

2010March29: From NCDC, NOAA: “At the end of March, moderate to severe drought persisted in the provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, southern Sichuan, and northwestern Guangxi in South China. Since fall 2009, drought conditions have affected more than 60 million people and ruined billions of dollars worth of crops in southwest China (Source: BBC News). According to a director at the Yunnan Land Resources Bureau, this is the worst drought in a century for parts of this province” (NCDC, NOAA).

Reference: NCDC, NOAA http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=hazards&year=2009&month=2&submitted=Get+Report

Image Description: Map courtesy: Division of Climate Impact Assessment/NCC/CMA. Image Location: NCDC/NOAA http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=hazards&year=2009&month=2&submitted=Get+Report Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

2010Mar26: China invested $34.6 billion in renewable energy technologies in 2009, while the US invested $18.6 billion in renewable energy technologies in 2009, according to researchers at the Pew Charitable Trusts (BBC, 2010).

Reference: BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8587319.stm

Read the Pew Charitable Trust Report Who’s Winning the Clean Energy Race? Growth, Competition and Opportunity in the World’s Largest Economies and Press Release http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=57972

Image Description: Wind farm in Xinjiang viewed from the Lanxin railway. Photo by taylorandayumi, 2008May08. Image Location: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wind_farm_xinjiang.jpg Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

2010March25: CO2 emissions in the United Kingdom fell 9.8% in 2009, according to the UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change. A decrease in energy consumption due to the recession was the primary reason for the change. The switch from coal to nuclear to generate electricity also helped lower CO2 emissions, according to the department (Guardian.co.uk, 2010).

Reference: Guardian.co.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/25/uk-greenhouse-gas-emissions-drop

Image Description: The Corus Steelworks in Redcar, from across the River Tees, UK. Photo by Ralph Gant, 2008Sept29. Image Location: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Redcar_Steelworks.jpg Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic  license.

2010Mar25: A study, using Grace and GPS data, finds that acceleration in ice loss began moving up the northwest coast of Greenland in late 2005. From NASA article: “The authors [of the study] speculate the dramatic ice mass losses on Greenland’s northwest coast are caused by some of the big glaciers in the region sliding downhill faster and dumping more ice into the sea”. The study was led by Shfaqat Abbas Khan of the Denmark Technical Institute’s National Space Institute in Copenhagen (NASA).

Reference: NASA http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-100

Image Description: From NASA article, “Changes in Greenland’s ice mass as measured by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) mission between September 2005 (left) and September 2008 (right).” Image credit: NASA/JPL. Image Location: NASA http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-100 Image Permission: This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA.

2010Mar24: Sea levels in the Bay of Bengal rose about 3 millimeters a year until 2000, but have been rising about 5 millimeters annually over the last ten years, according to oceanographer Sugata Hazra, a professor at Jadavpur University in Calcutta (Associated Press, 2010).

Reference: Associated Press story that appeared in the Toronto Sun http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/03/24/13339981.html

Image Description: Morning in Bangladesh. Fishing off coast. Photo by bk, 2008Mar27. Image Location: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fishing_-_Bay_of_Bengal_%282411561405%29.jpg Image Description: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic  license.

2010Mar24: New Moore island, an island about 3.5 kilometres long and 3 kilometres wide in the Bay of Bengal, is now under water due to rising sea levels. India and Bangladesh had argued over who owned the island for 30 years. “What these two countries could not achieve from years of talking, has been resolved by global warming,” said oceanographer Sugata Hazra, a professor at Jadavpur University in Calcutta (Associated Press, 2010). New Moore Island is also called South Talpatti Island and Purbasha.

Reference: Associated Press story that appeared in the Toronto Sun http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/03/24/13339981.html

Image Description: Location Of South Talpatti Island in Bay of Bengal. Image Location: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:South_Talpatti_Island.jpg Image Permission: The copyright holder of this work, hereby releases it into the public domain. This applies worldwide.

2010March13: China has built 4,000 miles (6,500 km) of high-speed rail for its train system (Huffington Post). The U.S. has built 456 miles (734 km) of high-speed rail for its train system (Wikipedia).

References: Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/13/us-highspeed-rail-china-t_n_497854.html; Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acela_Express

Image Descriptions: (top) China Railways CRH2 trains in Jinan. The CRH2 is a modified E2-1000 Series Shinkansen. Photo by kanegen, 2008Sept21. Image Location: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jinan_Railway_Station.jpg Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license;(bottom) Amtrak Acela Express train, led by power car #2035, at New Haven Union Station in New Haven, CT. Photo by Adam E. Moreira. Image Location: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AmtrakAcela2035atNewHavenUnion.jpg Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License.

2010March12: North American songbirds have become lighter and grown shorter wings in recent decades in response to warming temperatures, according to a study that analyzed records of 486,000 individual birds (102 species) between 1961 to 2007 at a ringing station in Pennsylviania. The study, which was published in the journal Oikos, was led by Dr Josh Van Buskirk of the University of Zurich, Switzerland and colleagues Mr Robert Mulvihill and Mr Robert Leberman of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Rector, Pennsylvania (BBC).

Reference: BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8560000/8560694.stm

Image Description: Rose breasted grosbeak. Photo by Joern Hauke, 2009May26. Image Location: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rose-breasted-grosbeak.jpg Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

2010Mar1-2010Mar10: Rainfall in India between 2010March1 and 2010March10 (IMD, 2010).

Reference: India Meteorological Department. 2010 http://www.imd.gov.in/section/hydro/dynamic/seasonal-rainfall.htm

Image Description: see case description. Image Location: India Meteorological Department http://www.imd.gov.in/section/hydro/dynamic/seasonal-rainfall.htm Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

Images are located at NCDC, NOAA http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=drought&year=2010&month=2&submitted=Get+Report Image Permission: This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties.

(top image) 2010Feb: Global Land and Ocean plot (NCDC, NESDIS, NOAA).
(bottom image) 2010Feb: Global Hemisphere plot (NCDC, NESDIS, NOAA).

References: NCDC, NOAA http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=global&year=2010&month=2&submitted=Get+Report

Image Description: see case description. Image Location: NOAA References: NCDC, NOAA http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=global&year=2010&month=2&submitted=Get+Report Image Permission: This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties.

2010Feb: (top image) Blended Land and Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies in degrees Celsius (NCDC, NESDIS, NOAA).
2010Feb-2009Dec: (bottom image) Blended Land and Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies in degrees Celsius (NCDC, NESDIS, NOAA).

Reference: NCDC, NESDIS, NOAA http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=global&year=2010&month=2&submitted=Get+Report

Image Description: see case description. Image Location: NOAA References: NCDC, NOAA http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=global&year=2010&month=2&submitted=Get+Report Image Permission: This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties.

2010Feb22: Global atmospheric levels of methane (CH4) increased by about 7 parts per billion per year during 2007 and 2008, according to Professor Euan Nisbet, of Royal Holloway College of the University of London, and Dr Ed Dlugokencky of the Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado, which is run by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Global atmospheric levels of the Methane (CH4) are currently at about 1,790 parts per billion. In 1984, Methane levels were at about 1,630 parts per billion. According to Michael McCarthy, the Environment Editor of The Independent: “Many climate scientists think that frozen Arctic tundra, like this at Sermermiut in Greenland, is a ticking time bomb in terms of global warming, because it holds vast amounts of methane, an immensely potent greenhouse gas. Over thousands of years the methane has accumulated under the ground at northern latitudes all around the world, and has effectively been taken out of circulation by the permafrost acting as an impermeable lid. But as the permafrost begins to melt in rising temperatures, the lid may open – with potentially catastrophic results” (The Independent).

Reference: The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/methane-levels-may-see-runaway-rise-scientists-warn-1906484.html

Image Description: Arctic Tundra – Barrow, Alaska. Photo by  MarmotChaser, 2008July. Image Location: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arctic_tundra_in_July.jpg Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

2010Feb16: Glaciers in west Greenland are melting 100 times faster at their end points beneath the ocean than they are at their surfaces, according to a study by NASA scientists and researchers at the University of California, Irvine and the University of British Columbia published online Feb. 14 in Nature Geoscience (NASA).

Reference: NASA http://jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-050

Read the Eric Rignot, Michele Koppes, & Isabella Velicogna article in Nature Geoscience. Rapid submarine melting of the calving faces of West Greenland glaciers. Published online: 14 February 2010. http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ngeo765.html

Image Description: Calving front of Equp Sermia glacier, West Greenland, one of the four glaciers studied by Rignot and his team. Image credit: Michele Koppes, University of British Columbia. Image Location: NASA http://jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-050

2010Feb16: President Obama announces “loan guarantees through the Department of Energy to operate two new nuclear reactors at a plant in Burke, Georgia. It will be the first new nuclear power plant in nearly three decades. The plant is expected to create approximately 3500 construction jobs and 800 permanent jobs. When the nuclear reactors come online, they will provide reliable electricity for 1.4 million people in Georgia” (WhiteHouse.gov).

Reference: WhiteHouse.gov http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/16/nuclear-energy-and-a-clean-energy-future

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_nANEVBK6M

Image Description: Sean Myers points out a feature on a Motor Control Panel to President Barack Obama during a tour of the jobs training center at the International Brotherhood of Electricians (IBEW) Local 26 headquarters in Lanham, Md., Feb. 16, 2010. Looking on at left are Chuck Graham, Business Manager of IBEW Local Union 26 and Energy Secretary Steven Chu. February 16, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton). Image Location: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/02/16/nuclear-energy-and-a-clean-energy-future Image Permission: This image is a work of a United States federal employee, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

2010Feb12: At the TED Conference in Long Beach, California, Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates argued that the world must eliminate all of its carbon emissions and cut energy costs in half by 2050 in order to prevent climate catastrophe. He urged the world’s tech community to discover a way to turn spent nuclear fuel into clean affordable energy and the world to adopt an energy portfolio that features carbon capture and storage technology, nuclear, wind, and solar power (CNN).

Reference: CNN http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/12/bill.gates.clean.energy

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaF-fq2Zn7I

Image Description: Sunset at the Solar Two power plant. Credit: Sandia National Laboratory. Image Location: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunset_at_the_Solar_Two_power_plant.jpg Image Permission: This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.

2010Jan1-2010Feb10: Rainfall in India between 2010Jan1 and 2010Feb10 (IMD, 2010).

Reference: India Meteorological Department. 2010 http://www.imd.gov.in/section/hydro/dynamic/seasonal-rainfall.htm

Image Description: see case description. Image Location: India Meteorological Department http://www.imd.gov.in/section/hydro/dynamic/seasonal-rainfall.htm Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

2010Feb7: South Dakota wind map shows the wind resource at 50 meters (NREL).

Reference: U.S. Department of Energy, NREL, Wind Powering America http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/maps_template.asp?stateab=sd

Image Description: see case description. Image Location: U.S. Department of Energy, Wind Powering America http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/maps_template.asp?stateab=sd Image Permission: This image is a work of a United States federal employee, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

2010Feb5: Arctic melting this year may warm the Earth an amount equivalent to adding three billion metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, according to Pew Environment Group’s Oceans North “An Initial Estimate of the Cost of Lost Climate Services Due to Changes in the Arctic Cryosphere” report. “That’s equal to forty percent of all U.S. industrial emissions this year or bringing on line more than 500 large coal-burning power plants,” said Dr. Eugenie Euskirchen, co-author of the report and a scientist from the University of Alaska at Fairbanks’ Institute of Arctic Biology (Pew Charitable Trusts).

Reference: Pew Environment Group http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=57159

Read the Report http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=57161

Image Description: Small bergy bits the size of houses being released from Tracy Arm in Alaska Southeast. Photo taken August 1991 by Commander John Bortniak, NOAA Corps. Image Location: NOAA Photo Library http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/corp1893.htm Image Permission: This image is a work of a United States federal employee, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

2010Feb5: The cost of the Arctic’s rapid ice melt will be $2.4 trillion by 2050 as the region loses its ability to cool the global climate, according to Pew Environment Group’s Oceans North “An Initial Estimate of the Cost of Lost Climate Services Due to Changes in the Arctic Cryosphere” report (Pew Charitable Trusts).

Reference: Pew Environment Group http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=57159

Read the Report http://www.pewtrusts.org/our_work_report_detail.aspx?id=57161

Image Description: Ice photo from NOAA ship. From Miller Freeman website. Image Location: NOAA Photo Library http://www.arctic.noaa.gov/images/noaa-ship-pics/ceaurex1.jpg Image Permission: This image is a work of a United States federal employee, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

2010Jan31-2009Nov1: Three monthly mean maximum temperature anomaly for Australia, calculated with respect to the average over the 1961-1990 reference period (National Climate Centre, Commonwealth of Australia, 2010).

Reference: National Climate Centre, Commonwealth of Australia. Australian Bureau of Meteorology http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/awap/temp/index.jsp?colour=colour&time=latest&step=0&map=maxanom&period=3month&area=nat

Image Description: see case description. Product of the National Climate Centre. Image Location: Commonwealth of Australia. Australian Bureau of Meteorology http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/awap/temp/index.jsp?colour=colour&time=latest&step=0&map=maxanom&period=3month&area=nat Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

2010Jan31: January 2010 temperature departure from the 1971-2000 normal – United States (NCDC, NOAA).

Reference: NCDC, NOAA http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/cag3.html

Image Description: see case description. Image Location: NCDC, NOAA http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/cag3/cag3.html Image Permission: This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties.

2010Jan: Global Unusual Monthly Mean Temperatures and Precipitation (BCC).

Reference: Beijing Climate Center http://bcc.cma.gov.cn/en/

Image Description: see case description. Image Location: Climate Diagnostics and Prediction Division/NCC/CMA http://ncc.cma.gov.cn/Monitoring/Bulletin/201001/monitoringc/globalextrc.gif Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

2010Jan26: The U.S. wind industry installed a record 9,900 MW of new generating capacity in 2009, a 39% increase in wind generation capacity compared to the year before (New York Times). “The U.S. wind energy industry shattered all installation records in 2009, chalking up the Recovery Act as a historic success in creating jobs, avoiding carbon, and protecting consumers,” said AWEA CEO Denise Bode. “But U.S. wind turbine manufacturing – the canary in the mine — is down compared to last year’s levels, and needs long-term policy certainty and market pull in order to grow.  We need to set hard targets, in the form of a national Renewable Electricity Standard (RES), in order to provide the necessary stability for manufacturers to expand their U.S. operations and to seize the historic opportunity we have today to build up a thriving renewable energy industry” (AWEA).

Reference: AWEA http://www.awea.org/newsroom/releases/01-26-10_AWEA_Q4_and_Year-End_Report_Release.html#_edn1; New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/business/energy-environment/26wind.html

Read the White House Press Release – The Winds of Recovery are Blowing Across the Nation http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/01/26/winds-recovery-are-blowing-across-nation

Image Description: Map shows installed megawatts (MW) for each U.S. state. Top states in terms of total wind power capacities: Texas (9,410), Iowa (3,670), California (2,794), Washington (1,980), Minnesota (1,809). Image Location: AWEA http://www.awea.org/projects/ Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

2010Jan22: 25% of the total U.S. grain crop in 2009 (about 107 million tons of grain) ended up as ethanol to fuel cars. “The grain grown to produce fuel in the US [in 2009] was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels,” said Lester Brown, the director of the Earth Policy Institute, a thinktank that conducted the analysis of US Department of Agriculture data (Guardian.co.uk).

Reference: Guardian.co.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/22/quarter-us-grain-biofuels-food

Read the Earth Policy Institute’s press release - Data Highlights: U.S. Feeds One Quarter of its Grain to Cars While Hunger is on the Rise http://www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/press_room/C68/2010_datarelease6/

Image Description: (top) U.S. Grain Used for Ethanol, 1980-2009. Source: USDA. (middle) Number of Undernourished People in the World 1969-2009. Source: FAO. (bottom) Number of People Who Could be Fed by the U.S. Grain Used to Produce Ethanol. Source: EPI, UN, USDA. Images Credit: Earth Policy Institute. Images Location: Earth Policy Institute http://www.earth-policy.org/index.php?/press_room/C68/2010_datarelease6/ Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

2010Jan18: The U.S. wind corridor includes Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming.

Reference: National Renewable Energy Lab http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_maps.asp

Images are from the National Renewable Energy Lab. Colorado http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=co; Iowa http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=ia; Kansas http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=ks; Minnesota http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=mn; Montana http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=mt; Nebraska http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=ne; New Mexico http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=nm; North Dakota http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=nd; Oklahoma http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=ok; South Dakota http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=sd; Texas http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=tx; Wyoming http://www.windpoweringamerica.gov/wind_resource_maps.asp?stateab=wy

Image Permission: These are the works of United States federal employees, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the images are in the public domain.

2010Jan7: The Middle East has not had annual rains the last three summers. 800,000 Syrians have lost their livelihood and more than 160 Syrian villages have been abandoned because of severe drought conditions. Thousands of “water refugees” have migrated to urban areas. “The water refugees are a product of climate change, mismanaged water resources. It’s a product of population explosion; it’s a lot of things. It’s a perfect storm that is wreaking havoc in the rural farming sector of Syria and Iraq,” says Hussein Amery, an expert on Middle East water management and a professor at the Colorado School of Mines (NPR).

Reference: NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122294630

Image Description: Large dust storm was blowing over and obscuring the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Image acquired February 9, 2006. Image Location: NASA http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=8369 Image Permission: This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from NASA, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties.

2010Jan7: Turkey and Syria agree to the joint construction and management of a dam on the Orontes River, which runs along the Turkish and Syrian border (TRT). Hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners have been displaced because of a 3-year drought, which has devastated the agricutural sector. The scarcity of water has led to resentment by Syria and Iraq against Turkey, which is one of the only countries in the Middle East to have enough water. Turkey is a water superpower, according to Hussein Amery, an expert on Middle East water management and a professor at the Colorado School of Mines. The upper tributaries of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers are located in Turkey and dams have been built on rivers, reducing the flow of water to Arab countries that are downstream (NPR).

References: NPR http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122365133&ps=cprs; TRT http://www.trtenglish.com/trtinternational/en/newsDetail.aspx?HaberKodu=8904a24c-00fd-4745-9c13-fe7092cc7f9f

Image Description: Orentes River. Credit: syriapath.com Image Location: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hama-orontes-river.JPG Image Permission: The copyright holder of this work, hereby releases it into the public domain. This applies worldwide.

2010Jan3: Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, and the UK, announce plans to build an electricity grid that will link renewable energy projects (i.e., wind, solar, hydro, geothermal) around the North Sea. The grid would link thousands of kilometers of highly efficient undersea cables and could cost about €30bn (Guardian.co.uk).

Reference: Guardian.co.uk http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/03/european-unites-renewable-energy-supergrid

Image Description: Dünenübergang im Norden der ostfriesischen Nordseeinsel Juist in Niedersachsen, Germany. Photo by 4028mdk09, 2009Oct5. Image Location: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:D%C3%BCnen%C3%BCbergang_Juist.JPG Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one.

2009-1880: “Except for a leveling off between the 1940s and 1970s, Earth’s surface temperatures have increased since 1880. The last decade has brought the temperatures to the highest levels ever recorded. The graph shows global annual surface temperatures relative to 1951-1980 mean temperatures. As shown by the red line, long-term trends are more apparent when temperatures are averaged over a five year period” (NASA).

Reference: NASA http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/temp-analysis-2009.html

Image Description: see case description. Credit: NASA. Image Location: NASA http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/temp-analysis-2009.html Image Permission: This image is a work of a United States federal employee, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

2009: 2009 was the warmest year on record in the Southern Hemisphere (NASA).

Reference: NASA http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/temp-analysis-2009.html

Image Description: see case description. Credit: NASA. Image Location: NASA http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/temp-analysis-2009.html Image Permission: This image is a work of a United States federal employee, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

2009-2000: “This map shows temperature changes for the last decade—January 2000 to December 2009—relative to the 1951-1980 mean. Warmer areas are in red, cooler areas in blue. The largest temperature increases occurred in the Arctic and a portion of Antarctica…January 2000 to December 2009 was the warmest decade on record” (NASA).

Reference: NASA http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/temp-analysis-2009.html

Image Description: see case description. Credit: NASA. Image Location: NASA http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/temp-analysis-2009.html Image Permission: This image is a work of a United States federal employee, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

2009Dec31: (first image) Land Surface Temperature Anomalies in December 2009; (second image) Blended land and sea surface temperature anomalies in December 2009; (third image) December 2009 Precipitation Anomalies in Millimeters;  (fourth image) December 2009 Precipitation Percent Departures (NCDC, NESDIS, NOAA).

Reference: NCDC, NESDIS, NOAA http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=global&year=2009&month=12&submitted=Get+Report

Image Description: see case descriptions. Images are located at NCDC, NOAA http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/?report=global&year=2009&month=12&submitted=Get+Report Image Permission: These images are in the public domain because they contain materials that originally came from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, taken or made during the course of an employee’s official duties.

2009-1961: Annual Temperature Averages (Australian BoM).

Reference: Australian BoM http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/global/averagemaps.cgi?map=global_t&season=0112

Image Description: see case description. Image Location: Australian BoM http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/global/averagemaps.cgi?map=global_t&season=0112 Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

2009-1900: Trend in Global Annual Temperature 1900-2009, 1910-2009, 1920-2009, 1930-2009, 1940-2009, 1950-2009, 1960-2009, 1970-2009 (Australian BoM).

Reference: Australian BoM http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/global/trendmaps.cgi

Image Descriptions: see case descriptions. Images are located at Australian BoM http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/global/trendmaps.cgi Image Permission: These works are copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of these works to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

Reference: Commonwealth of Australia. Australian Bureau of Meteorology http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/extremes/trendmaps.cgi?map=TN90&period=1960

Images are located at Commonwealth of Australia. Australian Bureau of Meteorology http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/change/extremes/trendmaps.cgi?map=TN90&period=1960 The images were issued January 28, 2010. Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

2009Oct1-Dec30: Rainfall in India between 2009Oct1 and 2009Dec30 (IMD, 2009).

Reference: India Meteorological Department. 2009 http://www.imd.gov.in/section/hydro/dynamic/seasonal-rainfall.htm

Image Description: see case description. Image Location: India Meteorological Department http://www.imd.gov.in/section/hydro/dynamic/seasonal-rainfall.htm Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

2009Dec19: Main points of the Copenhagen Accord, the deal reached between the US, China, India, Brazil and South Africa, at the UN Climate talks in Copenhagen: contains no reference to a legally binding agreement; contains no deadline for transforming the accord into a binding deal; recognizes need to limit global temperatures rising no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels; does not identify a year by which carbon emissions should peak; countries are asked to announce by 1 February 2009 their pledges for curbing carbon emissions by 2020; promises to deliver $30 billion of aid for developing nations over the next three years; outlines a goal of providing $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor countries cope with the impacts of climate change; establishes a green climate fund which will support projects in developing countries related to mitigation, adaptation, capacity building and technology transfer; developing countries will submit national reports on their emissions pledges; and the implementation of the Copenhagen Accord will be reviewed by 2015 (BBC).

Reference: BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8422307.stm

Read the Copenhagen Accord http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/ext/_auto/-/http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/cop15/eng/l07.pdf

Image Description: COP15 logo. Credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. Image Location: COP15 http://en.cop15.dk/about+cop15/logo Image Permission: Media may use the logo editorially in articles/stories on COP15.

2009Dec15: Global CO2 emissions from fossil fuels in 2008 were 40% higher than those in 1990, according to The Copenhagen Diagnosis, a report that synthesizes climate science published since the 2007 IPCC report (The Copenhagen Diagnosis).

Reference: The Copenhagen Diagnosis, 2009: Updating the world on the Latest Climate Science. I. Allison, N. L. Bindoff, R.A. Bindoff, R.A. Bindschadler, P.M. Cox, N. de Noblet, M.H. England, J.E. Francis, N. Gruber, A.M. Haywood, D.J. Karoly, G. Kaser, C. Le Quéré, T.M. Lenton, M.E. Mann, B.I. McNeil, A.J. Pitman, S. Rahmstorf, E. Rignot, H.J. Schellnhuber, S.H. Schneider, S.C. Sherwood, R.C.J. Somerville, K.Steffen, E.J. Steig, M. Visbeck, A.J. Weaver. The University of New South Wales Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC), Sydney, Australia, 60pp.

Read the report at http://www.copenhagendiagnosis.org/executive_summary.html

Image Description: (Fig 1) Global CO2 Emissions from Fossil Fuels. Figure from The Copenhagen Diagnosis, 2009 Figures. Image Location: The Copenhagen Diagnosis http://www.copenhagendiagnosis.org/download/default.html Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.

2009Dec14: “Climate change is causing accelerated sea level rise and an increase in the salinity of the southern Sundarbans,” says Professor Pranabes Sanyal of Jadavpur University in Calcutta, India. “That in turn is causing the migration of the tigers from the southern islands towards the north, close to the human habitation. That’s why we have this man-animal confrontation – and the confrontation is increasing” (BBC).

Reference: BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8411225.stm

Image Description: Tiger tracks in Sundarbans National Park. Photo by Peter Andersen, 2006Dec10. Image Location: Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunderbans_049.jpg Image Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one.

2009Dec14: Different ways to look at carbon emissions (BBC).

Reference: BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8411768.stm

Image Description: see case description. Data Sources: CDIAC, Potsdam Institute for Climate Change Research. Image created by BBC. Image Location: BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8411768.stm Image Permission: This work is copyrighted and unlicensed. However, it is believed that the use of this work to illustrate the subject in question, Where no free equivalent is available or could be created that would adequately give the same information, on Interlinked Challenges, hosted on servers in the United States by Michigan State University, qualifies as fair use under United States copyright law.