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Arctic ground squirrels could play a greater role in climate change than was previously thought. Scientists have found that the animals are hastening the release of greenhouse gases from the permafrost - a vast, frozen store of carbon. The researchers say it suggests the impact of wildlife on this area has been underplayed. The findings are being presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco. Dr Sue Natali, from Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts, US, said: "We know wildlife impacts vegetation, and we know vegetation impacts thaw and soil carbon. "It certainly has a bigger impact...

Here is your chance again to join “Josh of the Month Club”. Samples follow.After the great response we had the last two years, Josh has sent his artwork across the pond to provide a special WUWT calendar for USA and Canadian readers again this year. It contains artwork more centric to issues here on this side of the pond, along with some cartoons never before published on WUWT.These make great Christmas gifts for yourself, your friends, or some of those special people like Mike Mann that need some cheer and enlightenment. Recall that Dr. Mann turned our simple gift...

Hot New Book: Steyn, Delingpole, Bolt, Carter, Plimer, Lindzen, Lawson, Watts, Nova Too many big names too list, and all in one book, edited by Alan Moran and published by the IPA. I’m am just tickled, delighted to be one of the authors.The proper headline should include Ross McKitrick, Willie Soon, Pat Michaels, Garth Paltridge, Kesten Green, Stewart Franks, Christopher Essex, Jennifer Marohasy and John Abbott. Not to forget the great writers Rupert Darwall, and Donna LaFramboise.– JoAn excerpt:Shh, don’t mention the water To state the bleeding obvious, Earth is a Water Planet. Water dominates everything and it’s infernally complicated. Water...

LIMA, Peru (AP) — A last-minute deal that salvaged U.N. climate talks from collapse early Sunday sends a signal the rich-poor divide that long held up progress can be overcome with a year to go before a landmark pact is supposed to be adopted in Paris.

The latest United Nations effort in Lima to draft a new global treaty on climate change proves Prime Minister Stephen Harper was right when he described its efforts as “a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.” Harper was pilloried by Canada’s opposition parties after his statement, contained in a 2002 fundraising letter for the now-defunct Canadian Alliance, was revealed in 2007, shortly after he won the 2006 federal election. But Harper was right. Indeed he was vindicated in 2011, when a senior UN climate official, German economist Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,...

A thorough explanation of the origins of the rain storms hitting California. There is no tropical moisture involved. Systems coming in to west coast are all well north of Hawaii, which is dry. So the rain is a product of cold air off the Asian continent colliding with warm water off the west coast. Otherwise, Joe argues for a very snowy Christmas.

Natural temperature swings in the ocean, not global warming, are driving California’s extreme drought, according to a new government study. Researchers said sea surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean set up an atmospheric roadblock off the West Coast that diverted winter storms away from California. The state relies on winter rain and snow for most of its yearly water. The roadblock is a persistent ridge of high pressure that first formed in 2011 during a La Niña event. Even though La Niña broke down after the 2011-2012 winter, the western equatorial Pacific Ocean remained a warm water bull’s-eye, a...

Half of Republicans back carbon limits, poll says "Six in 10 Americans, including half of all Republicans, said they support regulation of carbon dioxide pollution, although they weren't asked how. Nearly half of Republicans said the U.S. should lead the global fight to curb climate change, even if it means taking action when other countries do not. And majorities across party lines said environmental protections "improve economic growth and provide new jobs" in the long run, a popular Obama administration talking point." [snip] The AP-NORC Center survey of 1,578 adults was conducted online Nov. 20-Dec. 1, using a sample...

VATICAN CITY - Tackling the problem of climate change is a serious ethical and moral responsibility, Pope Francis told negotiators from around the world meeting for a climate summit in Lima, Peru. "The time to find global solutions is running out. We can find adequate solutions only if we act together and unanimously," he said in a written message to Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Peru's minister of the environment and host president of the 20th UN Climate Change Conference. Thousands of negotiators from 195 countries gathered for the meeting in Lima Dec. 1-12 to hammer out details of a new international agreement...

So how are we all faring here in the face of this deadly NorCal storm? Since my house didn't blow away and I still have power I'm doing a cookathon laundry extravaganza!

Northern California faces a blizzard warning from late Wednesday until 1 p.m. Friday, with 10 to 20 inches of snow possible in communities above 6,000 feet, and as much as two to three feet of snow in northern Sierra communities. Wind gusts could exceed 80 mph in some areas, the Los Angeles Times reported. More than seven-and-a-half inches of rain is also expected in the Sierra Nevada, and the Bay Area could see more than three inches of rain. The National Weather Service office in Sacramento posted a warning .

It used to strike me as impossible for global warming to cause cold weather. Then I realized that I could chill a soft drink in the oven if there were no room left in the refrigerator to bake a cake. Up until then I did not know that the same cause can have opposite effects. In my unenlightened state, it never occurred to me that carbon dioxide could cause both excessive heat and excessive cold, both drought and flood. I should have known. After all, we calm hyperactive children with stimulants and cure addiction to drugs with addicting drugs. When...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Sustained winds at or near hurricane strength in the highest elevations with gusts exceeding 100 miles per hour across the Sierra summit are forecast for Thursday, with Bay Area winds easily gusting past 50 miles per hour in urban areas and 70-80 miles per hour in the local mountains and hills in what could be the storm of the decade. Computer models are able to break down the exact time of highest danger. By mid-morning Thursday, models indicate winds peaking. Along the coast, 60 mile per hour winds are forecast, with higher gusts.

The Earth is presently in an interglacial period—a period between ice ages. Since the end of the last ice age, Earth’s surface temperatures have been above the temperature needed to maintain ice sheets and glaciers, which covered much of the land masses at mid-to-high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. As a result, those ice sheets and glaciers have been melting for tens of thousands of years and sea levels have risen…and will continue to rise until the start of the next ice age.Many of us are old enough to remember the scare stories from the 1970s, a time when climate...

The headlines are burning around the nation: 2014 was the hottest ever spring! Except it wasn’t. The UAH satellite coverage sees all of Australia, day and night, and are not affected by urban heat, airport tarmacs, “gaps in the stations”, or inexplicable adjustments.When will the Bureau of Meteorology discover satellites? How many years will it take to train the ABC journalists to ask the BOM if satellite measurements agree or disagree with their highly adjusted, altered, deleted, and homogenised ground stations?I used exactly no tax dollars to email John Christy of UAH, get the latest data, and graph it to...

The Abortioneers is a blog written by abortion clinic workers. One clinic worker discusses what happens when women miss their abortion appointments because of natural disasters: “When Hurricane Katrina hit I was working in the South at an abortion clinic. I remember hearing stories through our networks of women desperately trying to find an abortion clinic after they were evacuated because the hurricane caused them to miss their appointment. … At my clinic when there were a few times we were forced to close due to circumstances beyond our control, we would “freeze” the fee for women so that they...

Long range weather forecast through Christmas.

Forecasters say that from Tuesday through tonight, the region will experience its heaviest rainfall since March. Tuesday produced a raft of rainfall records for a December 2.

With temperature data showing 2014 currently tied for the hottest year on record, the U.N. weather agency on Wednesday rejected claims that global warming has paused. The World Meteorological Organization said the global average temperature in January-October was 0.57° Celsius (1.03° Fahrenheit) above average, the same as in record hot year 2010. The ocean temperature set a new record in the nine-month period, while land temperatures were the fourth or fifth highest since record-keeping began in the 19th century, the WMO said in a report released at U.N. climate talks in Lima and at its headquarters in Geneva. “The provisional...

Drenching rain will fall on much of California through Tuesday night, bringing some relief to the ongoing drought and raising the risk of flash flooding. While a series of storms have brought rain to parts of northern and central California over the past few weeks, Tuesday's storm will bring the first significant rain event for Southern California since the spring. Some rain moved over part of the state on Sunday ahead of this week's storm, giving a preview of what is to come. ... Part of the Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu, California was closed on Sunday afternoon due to...