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2013

Media in English 2013

Water risk as world warms

When pondering the best way to study the impact of climate change, researcher Hans Joachim Schellnhuber liked to recall an old Hindu fable. The analogy worked. Although many researchers had modelled various aspects of the global-warming elephant, there had been no comprehensive assessment of what warming will really mean for human societies and vital natural resources. But that changed last year when the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project was launched. Source: Nature, 31.12.2013.

Climate Change Affecting Water Resources

Scientists say climate change will not affect all regions of the world equally – especially when it comes to fresh water. The latest computer models indicate some places will get a lot less, while others get a lot more. Source: Voice of America, 20.12.2013

Water Scarcity Worsening as Climate Changes: German Study

Climate change will increase the number of people at risk of absolute water scarcity by 40 percent this century, according to a German institute. Source: Bloomberg, 16.12.2013

Research warns climate change impacts could be worse than thought

An international scientific research project known as the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISI-MIP), run by 30 teams from 12 countries, has attempted to understand the severity and scale of global impacts of climate change. The project compares model projections on water scarcity, crop yields, disease, floods among other issues to see how they could interact. Source: The Guardian (Environment), 17.12.2013

Study: Gaps in data on Arctic temperatures account for the ‘pause’ in global warming

Stefan Rahmstorf, a leading climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said that the new study is “excellent” and is a very convincing explanation for something that has puzzled other researchers for many years. The study, by two researchers who are not climate scientists, is seen as one of the most important insights into the apparent flatlining of global average temperatures over the past 15 years. Source: The Independent, 26.11.2013.

Kyoto Veterans See Warming Goals Slipping Away: Carbon & Climate

The Warsaw meeting will continue work toward a treaty limiting carbon dioxide emissions in all nations. To meet the 2-degree target, about two-thirds of proven fossil-fuel reserves must remain in the ground, mostly coal, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency. Ottmar Edenhofer, chief economist at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said in an interview: “There is much more carbon underground than the amount which can still be released if dangerous climate change should be avoided. The challenge is that we have to provide the right incentives to the users of coal, oil and gas to leave a remarkable amount of these fossil fuels underground.” Source: Washington Post, 04.11.2013.

Water scarcity across globe to hit 500 million people: Study

Dieter Gerten of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, lead author of the study on water said: "If population growth continues, by the end of our century under a business as-usual scenario these figures would equate to well over 1 billion lives touched," and stresses that "this is on top of the more than 1 billion people already living in water-scarce regions today." Source: The Economic Times (India), 16.10.2013.

Water Shortage Seen Worsening on Climate Change in Potsdam Study

Based on modeling studies by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, water scarcity will increase around the world due to climate change, with more than 500 million people affected if mean global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). "Our findings support the assertion that we are fundamentally destabilizing our natural systems,” Wolfgang Lucht, one of the study co-authors, was cited as saying in the statement. “We are leaving the world as we know it.” Source: Bloomberg, 08.10.2013.

The climate chairman

Getting hundreds of experts to agree is never easy. Ottmar Edenhofer takes a firm, philosophical approach to the task. A portrait in: Nature, 18.09.2013.

Case for climate change is overwhelming, say scientists

Eleven days before the IPCC publishes its latest report, a group of eminent scientists says there is massive evidence of human responsibility; Source: The Guardian, 16.09.2013.

The borough that’s Britain’s greenest

Research from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research showed a strong correlation between the amount people earned and their carbon footprint, with each additional £600 in weekly income resulting in an extra tonne of annual C02 emissions. Source: The Independent, 11.09.2013.

How extreme will future heatwaves be? Choose your own adventure

Dim Coumou and Alexander Robinson from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research have published a paper in Environmental Research Letters examining the frequency of extreme heat events in a warming world. They compared a future in which humans continue to rely heavily on fossil fuels (an IPCC scenario called RCP8.5) to one in which we transition away from fossil fuels and rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions (called RCP2.6). Source: The Guardian, 21.08.2013.

Next 30 years to see more frequent heat waves

"We find that up until 2040, the frequency of monthly heat extremes will increase several fold, independent of the emission scenario we choose to take. Mitigation can, however, strongly reduce the number of extremes in the second half of the 21st century," lead author of a study, Dim Coumou , from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research , said. Source: The Times of India, 19.08.2013.

Heatwaves projected to double by 2020: study

"In many regions, the coldest summer months by the end of the century will be hotter than the hottest experienced today," unless emissions of greenhouse gases are curbed, said Dim Coumou, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Source: China Daily, 16.08.2013.

Timing a Rise in Sea Level

A recent paper, by Anders Levermann of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and a half-dozen colleagues, implies that even if emissions were to stop tomorrow, we have probably locked in several feet of sea level rise over the long term. Source: The New York Times, 12.08.2013.

Study: Sea-level rise threatens 1,400 U.S. cities

A rise in sea levels threatens the viability of more than 1,400 cities and towns, including Miami, Virginia Beach and Jacksonville, unless there are deep cuts in heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, says an analysis out Monday. To calculate U.S. cities at risk, it integrated a finding, published last month in a PNAS paper led by Anders Levermann of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, that each degree Fahrenheit of global warming translates to 4.2 feet of sea-level rise in the long run (as much as two millenniums.) Source: USA Today, 29.07.2013.

Climate change to hit Volta Basin, taxing energy, farming

A report is authored by specialists at the International Water Management Institute, Ghana's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, which says that West Africa's Volta River Basin, home to 24 million people in six countries, will be badly hit by climate change, as dwindling water flows hit hydro-electric supplies and irrigation. Source: The China Post, 20.07.2013.

Sea levels may rise 2.3 meters per degree Celsius of global warming: study

Anders Levermann, lead author of the study and research domain co-chair at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research based in Germany, said in a statement: "We're confident that our estimate is robust because of the combination of physics and data that we use." Source: People's Daily Online (Xinhua), 16.07.2013.

Sea Levels Increase Two Meters for Each Degree of Global Warming

Anders Levermann from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, the lead author of the study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said: “Continuous sea-level rise is something we cannot avoid unless global temperatures go down.” Source: The Washington Post (Bloomberg), 15.07.2013.

Britain basks in sunshine at last. But is it all part of the same global pattern of freak weather?

Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research has produced mathematical evidence to support the idea that the jet stream is becoming locked in global “planetary waves” where the high-altitude wind meanders widely from its usual west-east path and becomes locked for long periods in one position. Source: The Independent, 05.07.2013.