Continue reading »]]> A new study by Dr. Xiang Gao and colleagues asks: What is the worst we can expect from the climate feedback of melting permafrost, expanding lakes, and climate-warming methane feedback in the Arctic?

Their findings indicate the projected climate feedbacks from the terrestrial biosphere in the Arctic region are relatively small. Increases in atmospheric methane and radiative forcing from increased lake methane emissions are estimated to represent a weak climate-warming feedback over the 21st century.

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Continue reading »]]> “Historical Perspectives on Climate Change: Scientific, Technological, and Social Dynamics”
Seminar by Jim Fleming, Professor of Science, Technology, and Society, Colby College.
Tuesday, May 8, 4:15 PM, MIT Room 66-110.

How have scientists gained awareness and understanding of phenomena that cover the entire globe and that are constantly changing on time scales ranging from geological eras and centuries to decades, years, and seasons? How was this accomplished by individuals immersed in and surrounded by the phenomena? How were privileged positions created and defined? The answers are varied and worthy of extended reflection. This talk argues that scientific, technological, and social dynamics play essential roles in the study of climate dynamics.

Continue reading »]]> The MIT Museum’s exhibition “Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya” opened April 13, 2012 and will run through March 2013. Advisors to the exhibition include CGCS faculty and researchers: Patrick Heimbach, Susan Solomon and Ronald Prinn. The exhibition draws from mountaineer and filmmaker David Breashears’ breathtaking photographs, and places them in context with those of earlier mountaineer photographers – revealing the glacial melt that has occurred over time.
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