KeyStories

Key stories

   

Monday October 24, 2011


David Behar
DBehar@sfwater.org
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

Abstract & Biography

David Behar

Water infrastructure

By the year 2050, drinking water and wastewater/stormwater managers in the United States will need to spend up to $2 trillion to keep their systems in a state of good repair and respond to the effects of climate change, according to studies by USEPA and industry associations. For these managers, evaluation of the potential effect of climate change is experienced first as an interaction between climate science, engineering, planning, policymaking, and politics. Yet the infrastructure of collaboration between climate science providers and users is nascent at best, and indisputably undersized in relation to need. Creating functional collaboration between the climate science and decision making communities is a critical need as civil society begins to adapt to the effects of climate change.

     

Tuesday October 25, 2011

Kevin Trenberth
trenbert at ucar.edu
NCAR
, Boulder CO, USA

Abstract & Biography
Kevin Trenberth  

Observing systems

With the climate changing from human influences, there is now an imperative to document what is happening, understand those changes and their causes, sort out the human contribution because they have implications for the future, and make projections and predictions on various time horizons into the future. However, even though Earth is observed more completely today than at any other time, many of the observations are not "climate quality" and useful for monitoring long-term climate. The saying, “You can't manage what you can't measure,” applies to the Earth's climate system and thus adaptation to climate change and climate services. Failures during launch of two major satellites to observe climate aspects (OCO and Glory), premature failure of some other satellites, and delays and inadequate funding in the US weather/climate satellites (NOAA's JPSS) have greatly increased the risk of us going blindly into the future with regard to many aspects of climate. The needs are compelling and enormous, but also feasible with international cooperation.

     

Wednesday October 26, 2011

Christian Jakob
christian.jakob@monash.edu
Monash University
, Australia

Abstract & Biography
Christian Jakob  

From regional weather to global climate: Challenges and progress in improving models

Improving weather and climate models is key to better predictions. While great progress has been made, much work remains to be done. The increased need of society for timely and accurate weather and climate predictions requires an acceleration in model development, which can only be achieved by a significant transformation of the community.

     

Thursday October 27, 2011

Susan Solomon
University of Colorado, Boulder CO, USA

Abstract & Biography
Susan Solomon  

Climate policy

Policy has long been challenged to ensure that instruments such as the Kyoto Protocol or carbon trading deal with the wide range of different greenhouse gases and aerosols that are changing the Earth's climate. Recent research has shown that short-lived forcing agents can ‘trim the peak’ of coming climate change, while long-lived agents, especially carbon dioxide, will be responsible for at least a millennium of elevated temperatures and altered climate, even if anthropogenic emissions were to cease. We suggest that these vastly differing characteristics imply that a single basket for trading among forcing agents is incompatible with current scientific understanding.

     

Peter Stott
peter.stott@metoffice.gov.uk
Hadley Centre
, UK

Abstract & Biography
Peter Stott  

Extreme weather and climate change

The public often receives conflicting messages about whether extreme events can be linked to climate change. It is often said that a particular weather event is consistent with what is expected under climate change while it is also stated that it is impossible to say that an individual weather event is due to climate change. In our paper we advocate the development of a regular attribution service, responding soon after the event in question with reliable information on the causes of extreme weather events and the extent to which human influence has altered the odds of such events occurring. Research is under way, coordinated as part of the international Attribution of Climate-related Events (ACE) initiative, to develop the science needed to underpin such a service, and thereby better respond to the demand for timely, objective, and authoritative explanations of extreme weather events.

     

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