Climate of the Future

Climate models and Bach’s unfinished fugue

Faranak Tootoonchi September 10, 2020

Illustration by: Roshanak Tootoonchi, M.Sc. Student in hydrology and water resources management, University of Tabriz, Iran.

Johann Sebastian Bach’s last work – Contrapunctus XIV – is an unfinished musical composition. For many years, scholars considered that this piece was left unfinished because of Bach’s deteriorating health in his final years and eventual death. However, researchers recently found evidence that Bach might have left this piece intentionally unfinished, as he thought that there was still room for impr ...[Read More]

Learning lessons from the past to inform the future

Dr Charles Williams August 21, 2020

1.5 m air temperature climatology differences, Pliocene simulation from the UK’s physical climate model, relative to the preindustrial era.

A fairly recent blog post here reiterated the compelling comparison between the current COVID-19 crisis and the ongoing climate emergency, focusing on extreme events such as hurricanes, heatwaves and severe rainfall-related flooding, all of which are likely to get worse as the climate warms (Langendijk & Osman 2020). This comparison has been made by us Climate Scientists since the COVI ...[Read More]

Glacier retreat and music

Hans Oerlemans¹ and Felix Keller²
¹Utrecht University (The Netherlands) and Technical University of Graubünden (Switzerland); correspondence: j.oerlemans@uu.nl ²Technical University of Graubünden and Academia Engiadina (Switzerland)
July 20, 2020

Photograph of the Pers glacier (left) and Morteratsch glacier (right) in Switzerland. You can also see Piz Bernina (4049 m) on the right side and a small glacier with fleece cover on the left (Diavolezza firn). Photocredits: Christine Levy (Academia Engiadina), who took the photo on 1st August 2017 from a glider.

In virtually all parts of the world glaciers are retreating, and this is often considered to be one of the clearest signs of global warming (e.g. Leclercq and J Oerlemans, 2011). Glaciers started to shrink in the second half of the 19th century and, apart from some minor interruptions, this development has continued until today. Over the past hundred years glacier melt has made a significant contr ...[Read More]

Hurricane COVID-19: What can COVID-19 tell us about tackling climate change?

Gaby S. Langendijk¹ and Marisol Osman ²
1. Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Hamburg, Germany.
2. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera (CIMA), UMI-IFAECI (CNRS), Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
April 16, 2020

Image has been compiled by authors. Hurricane Image Credit: NASA Goddard Rapid Response Team. COVID-19 Virus Image Credit: Pixabay royalty free images.

Note by the editors: In the unique period our world is currently facing, we have decided to open our blog to hear the voices of our young climate scientists from around the globe. This is an opinion piece provided by two early career climatologists from Argentina and the Netherlands. I just arrived at home with a bunch of groceries from the supermarket after encountering some very empty shelves. I ...[Read More]