Three and a Half Centuries of Droughts in the American Southeast

Published September 26, 2012

What do the data indicate about the region’s vulnerability to this type of extreme weather? They demonstrate that “recent droughts are not unprecedented over the last 346 years,” and that “droughts of extended duration occurred more frequently between 1696 and 1820,” when most of the world was shivering in the midst of the Little Ice Age… Read More
 

The Thermal Optimality of Entire Ecosystems (25 September 2012)
If the world begins to warm again, for whatever reason, the bulk of the planet’s vast array of ecosystems will likely become even more productive than they are today… Read More

First Generation Biofuels: Good or Bad for Man and the Biosphere? (25 September 2012)
The authors of this study conclude that “under current production systems, the negative impacts from biofuel production on phosphorus depletion appear to exceed the positive impacts on climate change mitigation.” And, they add, “current targets for biofuels” – which they say can only be filled with first-generation biofuel sources, as described by the International Energy Agency (2008) – “will affect future food security and may have a net negative impact on future welfare”… Read More

The Little Ice Age in West Antarctica (25 September 2012)
It synchronous with the Little Ice Age in the Northern Hemisphere and “probably caused by a change in solar and volcanic forcing”… Read More

Increasing Drought Under Global Warming? (25 September 2012)
The debate continues to rage on… Read More

Antioxidant Enzyme Responses of Winter Wheat to Drought Stress (26 September 2012)
How are they impacted by a doubling of the air’s CO2 content? In the present study the authors observed “changes in enzyme activity” that “indicated that enhanced CO2 concentration delayed the development of drought stress up to first node appearance, and stimulated antioxidant enzyme activity when drought occurred during ripening, thus reducing the unfavorable effects of [drought] stress”… Read More

Chipping Away at the Hockeystick (26 September 2012)
The consistent and continuous acquisition of new palaeo-climatic data demonstrates ever more convincingly that the IPCC claim that the Earth is currently warmer than it has been at any other time throughout the past millennium or more is most probably false… Read More

Greening of the Arctic Tundra (26 September 2012)
As Arctic temperatures have risen over the past four decades, so too has the growth of various forms of the region’s vegetation… Read More

CO2 Effects on Tropical Marine Fish Embryos and Larvae (26 September 2012)
“Contrary to expectations,” the results of this study indicated that “CO2-induced acidification up to the maximum values likely to be experienced over the next 100 years had no noticeable effect on embryonic duration, egg survivorship and size at hatching for A. percula, and tended to have a positive effect on the length and weight of larvae”… Read More