scholarly journals On the relationship between low cloud variability and lower tropospheric stability in the Southeast Pacific

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 3777-3811
Author(s):  
F. Sun ◽  
A. Hall ◽  
X. Qu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Seasonal Cycle ◽  
Austral Summer ◽  
Cloud Amount ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Cloud Feedbacks ◽  
Southeast Pacific ◽  
Low Cloud ◽  
Lower Tropospheric Stability ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. In this study, we examine observed marine low cloud variability in the southeast Pacific and its association with lower-tropospheric stability (LTS) across a spectrum of timescales. On both daily and interannual timescales, LTS and low cloud amount are very well correlated in austral summer (DJF). Meanwhile in winter (JJA), when ambient LTS increases, the LTS-low cloud relationship disintegrates. The DJF LTS-low cloud relationship also weakens in years with unusually large ambient LTS values. These are generally strong El Niño years, in which DJF LTS values are comparable to those typically found in JJA. Thus the LTS-low cloud relationship is strongly modulated by the seasonal cycle and the ENSO phenomenon. We also investigate the origin of LTS anomalies closely associated with low cloud variability during austral summer. We find that the ocean and atmosphere are independently involved in generating anomalies in LTS and hence variability in the southeast Pacific low cloud deck. This highlights the coupled nature of the climate system in this region, and raises the possibility of cloud feedbacks related to LTS. We conclude by addressing the implications of the observed LTS-low cloud relationship in the southeast Pacific for low cloud feedbacks in anthropogenic climate change.

scholarly journals On the relationship between low cloud variability and lower tropospheric stability in the Southeast Pacific

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 9053-9065 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Sun ◽  
A. Hall ◽  
X. Qu
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Cover ◽  
Austral Summer ◽  
Cloud Amount ◽  
Internal Variability ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Cloud Feedbacks ◽  
Southeast Pacific ◽  
Low Cloud ◽  
Lower Tropospheric Stability ◽  
Low Cloud Cover

Abstract. In this study, we examine marine low cloud cover variability in the Southeast Pacific and its association with lower-tropospheric stability (LTS) across a spectrum of timescales. On both daily and interannual timescales, LTS and low cloud amount are very well correlated in austral summer (DJF). Meanwhile in winter (JJA), when ambient LTS increases, the LTS–low cloud relationship substantially weakens. The DJF LTS–low cloud relationship also weakens in years with unusually large ambient LTS values. These are generally strong El Niño years, in which DJF LTS values are comparable to those typically found in JJA. Thus the LTS–low cloud relationship is strongly modulated by the seasonal cycle and the ENSO phenomenon. We also investigate the origin of LTS anomalies closely associated with low cloud variability during austral summer. We find that the ocean and atmosphere are independently involved in generating anomalies in LTS and hence variability in the Southeast Pacific low cloud deck. This highlights the importance of the physical (as opposed to chemical) component of the climate system in generating internal variability in low cloud cover. It also illustrates the coupled nature of the climate system in this region, and raises the possibility of cloud feedbacks related to LTS. We conclude by addressing the implications of the LTS–low cloud relationship in the Southeast Pacific for low cloud feedbacks in anthropogenic climate change.

scholarly journals Simulating the Role of Subtropical Stratocumulus Clouds in Driving Pacific Climate Variability

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (13) ◽  
pp. 5119-5131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katinka Bellomo ◽  
Amy Clement ◽  
Thorsten Mauritsen ◽  
Gaby Rädel ◽  
Bjorn Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Climate Variability ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Circulation Model ◽  
Cloud Feedback ◽  
Decadal Climate Variability ◽  
Cloud Feedbacks ◽  
Southeast Pacific ◽  
Low Cloud ◽  
Pacific Climate Variability

This study examines the influence of the northeast and southeast Pacific subtropical stratocumulus cloud regions on the modes of Pacific climate variability simulated by an atmospheric general circulation model (ECHAM6) coupled to a slab ocean. The sensitivity of cloud liquid water to underlying SST is changed in the radiation module of the atmospheric model to increase the strength of positive low-cloud feedback in the two regions. Enhanced low-cloud feedback increases the persistence and variance of the leading modes of climate variability at decadal and longer time scales. Additional integrations show that the southeast Pacific influences climate variability in the equatorial ENSO region, whereas the effects of the northeast Pacific remain confined to the North Pacific. The results herein suggest that a positive feedback among SST, cloud cover, and large-scale atmospheric circulation can explain decadal climate variability in the Pacific Ocean. In particular, cloud feedbacks over the subtropical stratocumulus regions set the time scale of climate variability. A proper representation of low-level cloud feedbacks in the subtropical stratocumulus regions could therefore improve the simulation of Pacific climate variability.

scholarly journals Scientific truth or debate: On the link between perceived scientific consensus and belief in anthropogenic climate change

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 778-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Bertoldo ◽  
Claire Mays ◽  
Gisela Böhm ◽  
Wouter Poortinga ◽  
Marc Poumadère ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Human Activity ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
The Public ◽  
Scientific Consensus ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Scientific Truth ◽  
The Relationship

Scientists overwhelmingly agree that climate change exists and is caused by human activity. It has been argued that communicating the consensus can counter climate scepticism, given that perceived scientific consensus is a major factor predicting public belief that climate change is anthropogenic. However, individuals may hold different models of science, potentially affecting their interpretation of scientific consensus. Using representative surveys in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Norway, we assessed whether the relationship between perceived scientific consensus and belief in anthropogenic climate change is conditioned by a person’s viewing science as ‘the search for truth’ or as ‘debate’. Results show that perceived scientific consensus is higher among climate change believers and moreover, significantly predicts belief in anthropogenic climate change. This relationship is stronger among people holding a model of science as the ‘search for truth’. These results help to disentangle the effect of implicit epistemological assumptions underlying the public understanding of the climate change debate.

scholarly journals Drought Adaptation and Climate Change Beliefs among Working Ranchers in Montana

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 281-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Yung ◽  
Nicky Phear ◽  
Alayna DuPont ◽  
Jess Montag ◽  
Daniel Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Financial Resources ◽  
Drought Adaptation ◽  
Climate Skepticism ◽  
Drought Conditions ◽  
Change Beliefs ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Natural Cycles

Abstract Agricultural producers may be particularly vulnerable to climate impacts, such as drought. To better understand how ranchers respond to ongoing drought and the relationship between climate change beliefs and drought adaptation, in-depth interviews with working ranchers were conducted. Ranchers described drought conditions as unprecedented and detailed the interacting impacts of drought and nonclimatic stressors. They viewed adaptation as critical and employed a wide range of responses to drought, but lack of financial resources, risks associated with change, local social norms, and optimism about future moisture created barriers to change. Most ranchers attributed drought to natural cycles and were skeptical about anthropogenic climate change. Many ranchers likened current drought conditions to past droughts, concluding that conditions would return to “normal.” A belief in natural cycles provided a sense of hope for some ranchers but felt immutable to others, reducing their sense of agency and efficacy. Taken together, climate skepticism, optimism about future conditions, lack of financial resources, and a limited sense of agency might be reducing investments in long-term adaptation. However, the relationship between climate change beliefs and adaptation action was not entirely clear, since the handful of ranchers adapting in anticipation of long-term drought were skeptical or uncertain about anthropogenic climate change. Further, most ranchers characterized adaptation as an individual endeavor and resisted government involvement in drought adaptation. In the context of climate skepticism and antigovernment sentiment, strategies to scale up adaptation efforts beyond the household will only succeed to the extent that they build on local norms and ideologies.

scholarly journals Human Hubris, Anthropogenic Climate Change, and an Environmental Ethic of Humility

2021 ◽  
pp. 108602662110390
Author(s):  
Eugene Sadler-Smith ◽  
Vita Akstinaite
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Consumer Behaviour ◽  
Environmental Ethic ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Natural Order ◽  
Proper Place ◽  
Critical Reflexivity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Education Accountability ◽  
The Relationship

This article is about how hubris, individually and collectively, has contributed to the climate emergency and how an environmental ethic of humility could play an ameliorating role in the crisis. It focuses on the relationship between virtue ethics and the natural environment, and it argues that a collective “human hubris” (“The Problem”) has contributed significantly to anthropogenic climate change and that a “humility-based approach” toward the environment that entails an appreciation of humanity’s proper place in the natural order (“A Solution”). In it, we combine theories from the social and environmental sciences to propose an environmental ethic of humility as an “antidote” to human hubris by which leaders and other stakeholders could steer institutions, organisations, and behaviour towards environmental virtuousness. We also suggest the environmental ethic of humility as a benchmark against which stakeholders could be held to account for the environmental impacts of their actions. The article discusses the implications of hubris and humility in the areas governance, consumer behaviour, reputation, learning and education, accountability, and critical reflexivity.

scholarly journals Low-Altitude Clouds Play an Important Role in a Changing Climate

Eos ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lily Strelich
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Cloud Cover ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
Low Cloud ◽  
Low Altitude ◽  
Low Cloud Cover

Scientists uncover the mechanics behind tropical marine low cloud cover and its influence on models of anthropogenic climate change.

The Future as God’s Amnesty? A Public Theology of Resistance for a Changing Climate

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Manley Scott
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Public Theology ◽  
Changing Climate ◽  
The Future ◽  
Theological Thought ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractIn this article, I situate anthropogenic climate change in a theological context. Climate change raises, first, the matter of the future of creation and, secondly, the matter of how to understand and affirm the goodness of creation. Further, in theological thought, the goodness of creation cannot be affirmed and fully addressed without, thirdly, some accounting of the goodness of God. In what follows I explore these three issues. The future of creation is discussed in terms of an amnesty bestowed by God. Additionally, some problems with the deployment of amnesty as a theopolitical category are discussed. Next, some of the theological implications of my recommendation of amnesty are explored. For example, what is the relationship between the future of creation and its past; what is the relationship between future and end; what is the relationship between the future of creation and the future of God? Finally, I explore what creaturely resistance is suggested by this appeal to the future as God’s amnesty in a public theological thought.

scholarly journals Form and perception of nature in Elizabeth bishop’s “questions of travel”.

2021 ◽  
pp. 281-296
Author(s):  
Yazdanmehr Gordanpour ◽  
Tahereh Rezaei
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Travel Writing ◽  
Human Perception ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Presence ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Formal Features

Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry is acutely form-conscious and human perception informs its descriptions of nature; critics who study Bishop’s poetry refer to her use of poetic artifice and note in passing the ethics of restraint and impersonality in her poetry. However, Bishop’s poetry is rarely discussed in the sphere of ecocriticism; and the formal significance of human perception infused with the descriptions of nature in her poetry is conveniently overlooked. Likewise, anthropogenic climate change is underrepresented in traditional ecocriticism which insists on removing form—and with it, any trace of the human—from the text. This article proposes that a study of Bishop’s travel writing and exploring the significance of concern for nature in conjunction with form-consciousness can contribute to a more profound understanding of both human-nature relationship and Bishop’s ecopoetic sensitivities. “Questions of Travel” is one of Bishop’s poems that directly grapples with the ethics of human presence in nature. The article explicates the textual and formal features of this poem to elucidate the function of form in its ecopoetic descriptions. The article shows how Bishop accepts the inevitability of human perception of nature and its literary corollary in ecopoetry as form-consciousness, and, thus, by implication, points to the importance of such poetry for a deeper understanding of the relationship between human beings and nature in the context of climate change.

Inside Out: Fourteen Antitheses Authenticating Cities

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-70
Author(s):  
Peter J. Taylor ◽  
Geoff O’Brien ◽  
Phil O’Keefe
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Modern Time ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Inside Out

This is the first chapter on unthinking, specifically unthinking modernity. It takes the form of 14 statements that are presented as basic modern theses, and which are countered by antitheses, alternative positions wherein urban demand is central to the argument. This thesis/antithesis device is used to broach three broad areas. First, the relationship between cities and states are considered with the former identified as constituting social development. Second, the role of cities in that social development is used to undermine modern time and spatial framings of change. Third, these contrarian ideas are brought to bear on the study of anthropogenic climate change, inserting cities as mass demand mechanisms. All this unthinking is intended to foster a fundamental mindscape break pointing towards transmodern sensibilities..

Political Preferences, Personality Traits, and Environmentalism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Soutter ◽  
René Mõttus
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Environmental Attitudes ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Party Voting

Although the scientific evidence of anthropogenic climate change continues to grow, public discourse still reflects a high level of scepticism and political polarisation towards anthropogenic climate change. In this study (N = 499) we attempted to replicate and expand upon an earlier finding that environmental terminology (“climate change” versus “global warming”) could partly explain political polarisation in environmental scepticism (Schuldt, Konrath, & Schwarz, 2011). Participants completed a series of online questionnaires assessing personality traits, political preferences, belief in environmental phenomenon, and various pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. Those with a Conservative political orientation and/or party voting believed less in both climate change and global warming compared to those with a Liberal orientation and/or party voting. Furthermore, there was an interaction between continuously measured political orientation, but not party voting, and question wording on beliefs in environmental phenomena. Personality traits did not confound these effects. Furthermore, continuously measured political orientation was associated with pro-environmental attitudes, after controlling for personality traits, age, gender, area lived in, income, and education. The personality domains of Openness, and Conscientiousness, were consistently associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, whereas Agreeableness was associated with pro-environmental attitudes but not with behaviours. This study highlights the importance of examining personality traits and political preferences together and suggests ways in which policy interventions can best be optimised to account for these individual differences.

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