Beef feedlots in southwestern Kansas: local change, perceptions, and the global change context

Cattle feedlots, some of which have a capacity of tens of thousands of head, have become a major driving force in the local economy and changing landscape of southwestern Kansas. The feedlot industry also is one of the region's most important sources of carbon-equivalent greenhouse gases. Changes to the beef industry are described, and the perceptions and attitudes of feedlot operators regarding climatic change issues and industrial change are analyzed based on a 1998 survey. The results indicate that a majority of feedlot respondents believe ‘global warming’ is mostly an unproven theory, and efforts to mitigate it are unwarranted.     

Consistency of observed winter precipitation trends in northern Europe with regional climate change projections

Often it is claimed that the recent changes in northern European climate are at least partly anthropogenic even though a human influence has not yet been successfully detected. Hence we investigate whether the recent changes are consistent with regional climate change projections. Therefore, trends in winter (DJF) mean precipitation in northern Europe are compared to human induced changes as predicted by a set of four regional climate model simulations. The patterns of recent trends and predicted changes match reasonably well as indicated by pattern correlation and the similarity is very likely not random. However, the model projections generally underestimate the recent change in winter precipitation. That is, the signal-to-noise ratio of the anthropogenic precipitation change is either rather low or the presently used simulations are significantly flawed in their ability to project changes into the future. European trends contain large signals related to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), of which a major unknown part may be unrelated to the anthropogenic signal. Therefore, we also examine the consistency of recent and projected changes after subtracting the NAO signal in both the observations and in the projections. It turns out that even after the removal of the NAO signal, the pattern of trends in the observations is similar to those projected by the models. At the same time, the magnitude of the trends is considerably reduced and closer to the magnitude of the change in the projections.     

Linking climate change and health outcomes: Examining the relationship between temperature,precipitation and birth weight in Africa

This paper examined the relationship between birth weight, precipitation, and temperature in 19 African countries. We matched recorded birth weights from Demographic and Health Surveys covering 1986 through 2010 with gridded monthly precipitation and temperature data derived from satellite and ground-based weather stations. Observed weather patterns during various stages of pregnancy were also used to examine the effect of temperature and precipitation on birth weight outcomes. In our empirical model we allowed the effect of weather factors to vary by the dominant food production strategy (livelihood zone) in a given region as well as by household wealth, mother's education and birth season. This allowed us to determine if certain populations are more or less vulnerable to unexpected weather changes after adjusting for known covariates. Finally we measured effect size by observing differences in birth weight outcomes in women who have one low birth weight experience and at least one healthy birth weight baby. The results indicated that climate does indeed impact birth weight and at a level comparable, in some cases, to the impact of increasing women's education or household electricity status.     

Consistency of observed near surface temperature trends with climate change projections over the Mediterranean region

We examine the possibility that anthropogenic forcing (Greenhouse gases and Sulfate aerosols, GS) is a plausible explanation for the observed near-surface temperature trends over the Mediterranean area. For this purpose, we compare annual and seasonal observed trends in near-surface temperature over the period from 1980 to 2009 with the response to GS forcing estimated from 23 models derived from CMIP3 database. We find that there is less than a 5% chance that natural (internal) variability is responsible for the observed annual and seasonal area-mean warming except in winter. Using additionally two pattern similarity statistics, pattern correlation and regression, we find that the large-scale component (spatial-mean) of the GS signal is detectable (at 2.5% level) in all seasons except in winter. In contrast, we fail to detect the small-scale component (spatial anomalies about the mean) of GS signal in observed trend patterns. Further, we find that the recent trends are significantly (at 2.5% level) consistent with all the 23 GS patterns, except in summer and spring, when 9 and 5 models respectively underestimate the observed warming. Thus, we conclude that GS forcing is a plausible explanation for the observed warming in the Mediterranean region. Consistency of observed trends with climate change projections indicates that present trends may be understood of what will come more so in the future, allowing for a better communication of the societal challenges to meet in the future.     

Scepticism and uncertainty about climate change: Dimensions, determinants and change over time

While scientific consensus and political and media messages appear to be increasingly certain, public attitudes and action towards the issue do not appear to be following suit. Popular and academic debate often assumes this is due to ignorance or misunderstanding on the part of the public, but some studies have suggested political beliefs and values may play a more important role in determining belief versus scepticism about climate change. The current research used two representative postal surveys of the UK public to: measure scepticism and uncertainty about climate change; determine how scepticism varies according to individual characteristics, knowledge and values; and examine how scepticism has changed over time. Findings show denial of climate change is less common than the perception that the issue has been exaggerated. Scepticism was found to be strongly determined by individuals’ environmental and political values (and indirectly by age, gender, location and lifestyle) rather than by education or knowledge. Between 2003 and 2008, public uncertainty about climate change has remained remarkably constant, although belief that claims about the issue are exaggerated has doubled over that period. These results are interpreted with reference to psychological concepts of motivated reasoning, confirmation bias and ‘finite pool of worry’. Implications for communication and policy are discussed.     

中国近50 a极端降水事件变化特征的季节性差异

强降水极易造成暴雨灾害,尤其是突发性强的短时强降水,动态监测、影响评估和风险预估是灾害防御的重要手段。但目前气象服务业务中,强降水的定量评估和风险预估还是以天为单位,现代气象服务精细化的需求迫切要将时间分辨率提升至小时尺度。本文利用1951-2018年国家气象观测站小时降水观测资料,从小时尺度界定站点、大区域、小区域降水过程的辨识方法。基于改进的降水过程综合强度评估方法,在概率密度分布的基础上,重新划分了极端、特强、强、较强、中等五个等级的降水过程综合强度指数。检验论证显示,基于小时分辨率降水过程的自动提取和评估方法合理,具有可操作性,能够对过程性降水、短时降水过程动态评估和预评估,可实时支撑气象服务业务,提升气象防灾减灾能力,也为后续开展短时强降水影响评估和风险预估建立基础。

     

长江流域极端降水过程事件的年内分布特征

基于1960-2016年乌江流域41个气象站的逐日降水观测资料,利用线性倾向估计、滑动平均、累积距平等方法计算趋势系数和气候趋势,分析了研究时段内乌江流域年暴雨等级面雨量、年平均最大日降水量、年平均极端持续强降水次数和对应降水量的时空分布特征,分析表明：（1）乌江流域年暴雨等级面雨量和日数呈显著增加趋势（均通过α=0.05显著性水平检验）,而暴雨强度呈不显著性增加趋势;5-10月各旬暴雨等级面雨量及日数变化基本一致,5月中旬至8月上旬呈单峰型分布,暴雨强度呈波动增减分布。（2）近57 a乌江流域年平均最大日降水量年代际变化比较明显。（3）乌江流域发生极端持续强降水年平均次数呈不显著的减少趋势,但极端持续强降水量呈不显著的增加趋势。采用耿贝尔极值Ⅰ型分布法计算了乌江流域5个代表站不同重现期日最大降水量值,发现不同站点日极端最大降水量重现期水平差异明显,重现期时间尺度存在临界点,约为50 a。

     

Multi-year fluctuations of temperature and precipitation: The gray area of climate change

The issue of whether the secular climate (twentieth century) is stationary or changing to some new semi-permanent state is clouded by the presence of so-called climate fluctuations. The twentieth century climate record of the United States reveals a substantial number of decadal fluctuations which occur in all seasons for both temperature and precipitation. Recent examples of such behavior include changes in winter and summer temperature variability and increases in transition season precipitation. Statistical evidence suggests that a substantial portion of these fluctuations, even those which are remarkably unusual, are merely manifestations of a stochastic process which possesses weak year-to-year persistence as viewed from an a posteriori perspective. The implications of this result are particularly important with respect to the formulation of physical causes of the fluctuations. The results emphasize the desirability of well-founded clearly-stated a priori theories of climate change as well as the limited usefulness of widely used climate normals.     

Social risk perceptions of climate change: A case study of farmers and agricultural advisors in northern California

Crop and livestock farmers must respond to climate change, including a range of physical and cultural impacts and risks. In rural northern California, farmers face extreme drought and catastrophic wildfires with increasing frequency. I draw on an extended case study of farmers and agricultural advisors in Siskiyou County to understand how rural agriculturalists perceive risks when navigating climate change discourses. While farmers are changing their management practices in response to the physical effects of climate change, many perceive substantial social risks within their communities if they align themselves publicly with climate change beliefs or actions. Perceived social consequences included loss of access to the benefits of membership in formal and informal farming groups. Efforts focused on educating or convincing farmers of climate science may, in some contexts, increase rather than decrease the perceived social risks of climate action. The framing of climate policies, programs, and practices – especially by public agricultural advisors like Cooperative Extension Advisors and local USDA staff (e.g., Farm Service Agency) – is important not only for increasing farmer participation, but also for reducing perceived social risks associated with climate change. Interventions that focus on livelihood impacts and validate existing land stewardship-oriented values have more potential to increase the pace and scale of climate change mitigation and adaptation in agriculture.     

Recent trends in regional air temperature and precipitation and links to global climate change in the Maharlo watershed,Southwestern Iran

Trends in air temperature and precipitation data are investigated for linkages to global warming and climate change. After checking for serial correlation with trend-free pre-whitening procedure, the Mann–Kendall test is used to detect monotonic trends and the Mann–Whitney test is used for trend step change. The case study is Maharlo watershed, Southwestern Iran, representing a semi-arid environment. Data are for the 1951–2011 period, from four temperature sites and seven precipitation sites. A homogeneity test investigates regional similarity of the time series data. The results include mean annual, mean annual maximum and minimum and seasonal analysis of air temperature and precipitation data. Mean annual temperature results indicate an increasing trend, while a non-significant trend in precipitation is observed in all the stations. Furthermore, significant phase change was detected in mean annual air temperature trend of Shiraz station in 1977, indicating decreasing trend during 1951–1976 and increasing trend during 1977–2011. The annual precipitation analysis for Shiraz shows a non-significant decrease during 1951–1976 and 1977–2011. The result of homogeneity test reveals that the studied stations form one homogeneous region. While air temperature trends appear as regional linkage to global warming/global climate change, more definite outcome requires analysis of longer time series data on precipitation and air temperature.     

Agriculture,irrigation and drought induced international migration: Evidence from Mexico

There is now substantial empirical evidence that climatic variability increases international migration, but relatively little is known about the mechanism driving the association and about adaptations that may reduce it. We use detailed data on migrants from Mexico to the U.S. to provide evidence in support of the hypothesis that drought induced migration from Mexico to the U.S. is mediated by agricultural income shocks. Migration rates increase in drought years, but only in Mexico’s drier regions, and the response is stronger in states and seasons in which agricultural production is also more sensitive to precipitation. Moreover, among the sample, only farmers display a significant increase in migration rates in drought years, and the effect is substantially weaker for households with access to irrigation.     

Natural disasters and climate change beliefs: The role of distance and prior beliefs

Public support of climate policies crucially depends on climate change beliefs. Here we analyze the effects of natural disaster experience on the belief in the existence of climate change. The primary data source is a panel survey covering 22,251 observations from 11,194 geo-located households collected in Germany between 2012 and 2015, combined with satellite imagery of a major flood event in 2013. We find that flood experience had a significant positive effect on the beliefs in the existence of climate change for those respondents living close to the flooded area. However, the effect decreases sharply with distance. We further show that this overall effect is driven by those respondents who already believed in climate change before the flood – they saw their belief confirmed by their experience. In contrast, spatial proximity to the flood had no measurable effect on skeptics. These results imply that climate skeptics may not be influenced by the experience of natural disasters at their doorsteps.     

近50年中国东部夏季降水与贝加尔湖地表气温年代际变化的关系

最近50年全球变暖,陆地增温幅度大于海洋,主要的增温中心位于亚洲北部、欧洲和北美等地区。因此,全球变暖有可能通过改变大尺度季风环流而影响中国气候变化。利用美国国家航空航天局空间研究中心(GISS)的逐月地表气温资料、NCEP/NCAR再分析资料及中国604个站逐月气温和降水观测资料,重点讨论了1951—2007年中国东部夏季降水与同期的北半球大陆地表气温年代际尺度变化关系。结果表明,近50年中国东部夏季降水异常主要表现为南旱北涝与南涝北旱两者年代际异常之间的转换,但在1996年之后,伴随北方干旱区向南发展,呈现出华北和长江中下游地区降水同时减少的特征。研究发现中国华北地区夏季降水与同期的环贝加尔湖地表气温在年代际尺度上存在显著的负相关关系;贝加尔湖地区地表气温增暖可能导致蒙古高原对流层出现异常的暖性反气旋,使得位于蒙古高原的气旋频数减少和强度减弱。由于华北降水与蒙古气旋的活动直接相关,从而导致华北地区夏季降水的持续性减少。自1996年开始贝加尔湖地区的地表气温进一步升高,导致中国北方干旱化加剧。由于环贝加尔湖地区是过去50年全球变暖的最显著地区之一,因此,全球变暖可能是通过关键区域的温度变化对中国的气候变化产...     

Statistical downscaling of daily mean temperature, pan evaporation and precipitation for climate change scenarios in Haihe River, China

A statistical downscaling method (SDSM) was evaluated by simultaneously downscaling air temperature, evaporation, and precipitation in Haihe River basin, China. The data used for evaluation were large-scale atmospheric data encompassing daily NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and the daily mean climate model results for scenarios A2 and B2 of the HadCM3 model. Selected as climate variables for downscaling were measured daily mean air temperature, pan evaporation, and precipitation data (1961–2000) from 11 weather stations in the Haihe River basin. The results obtained from SDSM showed that: (1) the pattern of change in and numerical values of the climate variables can be reasonably simulated, with the coefficients of determination between observed and downscaled mean temperature, pan evaporation, and precipitation being 99%, 93%, and 73%, respectively; (2) systematic errors existed in simulating extreme events, but the results were acceptable for practical applications; and (3) the mean air temperature would increase by about 0.7°C during 2011~2040; the total annual precipitation would decrease by about 7% in A2 scenario but increase by about 4% in B2 scenario; and there were no apparent changes in pan evaporation. It was concluded that in the next 30 years, climate would be warmer and drier, extreme events could be more intense, and autumn might be the most distinct season among all the changes.     

South African crop farming and climate change: An economic assessment of impacts

This paper assesses the economic impact of the expected adverse changes in the climate on crop farming in South Africa using a revised Ricardian model and data from farm household surveys, long-term climate data, major soils and runoffs. Mean annual estimates indicate that a 1% increase in temperature will lead to about US$ 80.00 increase in net crop revenue while a 1 mm/month fall in precipitation leads to US$ 2.00 fall, but with significant seasonal differences in impacts. There are also significant spatial differences and across the different farming systems. Using selected climate scenarios, the study predicts that crop net revenues are expected to fall by as much as 90% by 2100 with small-scale farmers been most affected. Policies therefore need to be fine-tuned and more focused to take advantage of the relative benefits across seasons, farming systems and spatially, and by so doing climate change may be beneficial rather than harmful.     

IPCC AR6报告解读：气候变化对城市、住区和关键基础设施的影响与适应

IPCC AR6 WGII评估了气候变化对城市、住区和关键基础设施的影响、风险及应对。气候变化对城市影响的程度和范围逐渐增加,全球城市化的过程与气候变化相互作用加剧了城市和住区的风险。通过社会基础设施、基于自然的解决方案和灰色/工程基础设施所采取的适应措施对气候恢复力发展均有贡献,而城市适应差距在世界各地普遍存在。气候恢复力发展需要多方协作、弥合政策行动差距、提升适应能力。评估报告的经验和案例为我国城乡地区适应和应对气候变化风险提供借鉴。     

Interrelationship of rainfall,temperature and reference evapotranspiration trends and their net response to the climate change in Central India

The monthly rainfall data from 1901 to 2011 and maximum and minimum temperature data from 1901 to 2005 are used along with the reference evapotranspiration (ET₀) to analyze the climate trend of 45 stations of Madhya Pradesh. ET₀ is calculated by the Hargreaves method from 1901 to 2005 and the computed data is then used for trend analysis. The temporal variation and the spatial distribution of trend are studied for seasonal and annual series with the Mann-Kendall (MK) test and Sen’s estimator of slope. The percentage of change is used to find the rate of change in 111 years (rainfall) and 105 years (temperatures and ET₀). Interrelationships among these variables are analyzed to see the dependency of one variable on the other. The results indicate a decreasing rainfall and increasing temperatures and ET₀ trend. A similar pattern is noticeable in all seasons except for monsoon season in temperature and ET₀ trend analysis. The highest increase of temperature is noticed during post-monsoon and winter. Rainfall shows a notable decrease in the monsoon season. The entire state of Madhya Pradesh is considered as a single unit, and the calculation of overall net change in the amount of the rainfall, temperatures (maximum and minimum) and ET₀ is done to estimate the total loss or gain in monthly, seasonal and annual series. The results show net loss or deficit in the amount of rainfall and the net gain or excess in the temperature and ET₀ amount.     

Living with limits: growth,resources, and climate change

Is it possible for all of humanity to enjoy the standards of living of today's high-income countries? What would happen if these limits were reached, perhaps because of climate change or a shortage of natural resources essential to production? How would society manage – or fail to manage – such limits? Notwithstanding the current financial and economic crises, these are perhaps the biggest questions confronting our species (and of a host of other species, who are the victims of our decisions). The article begins by considering the biggest economic event of our lifetimes – the ‘great convergence’ and its implications for the demand for resources. The discussion then turns to a specific limit on our development, climate change, which is different from most other limits, because it involves a global public good: the atmosphere. What such limits might mean for our civilization is discussed. One can persuade people to tackle climate change only if those concerned with the dangers persuade ordinary people that action will not come at the expense of their prosperity.     

It's political: How the salience of one's political identity changes climate change beliefs and policy support

Previous research has demonstrated a striking difference in climate change beliefs and policy support between people who identify with the right-wing of politics and with the left-wing of politics. But are we destined to continue with this divergence? We suggest that there is movement around these differences based on the politicization of climate change and we conducted two experimental studies with 126 and 646 people, respectively, to examine this effect. We found that those people whose political identity was made salient were less likely to believe in an anthropogenic cause of climate change and less likely to support government climate change policies than those whose identity was not made salient; particularly when those people were aligned with the right-wing of politics. The results demonstrate the importance of the salience of one's political identity in determining attitudes and beliefs even for scientific facts such as climate change. Our research also identifies some ways forward in dealing with climate change-based on depoliticizing the issue.